Our Lady of the Cerro de Vallecas

Marian title of Madrid (Puente de Vallecas) (Community of Madrid)
Recognized by the Church

Our Lady of the Hill is a bewildering parochial devotion the district of Vallecas (Madrid), born in the parish of San Alberto Magnoon the old Cerro del Uncle Pio (or Pius Felipe), an area that was of humble houses, gardens and pastoralism, in the southeast worker of the capital.

Main data

Origin and history

Our Lady of the Hill is a bewildering parochial devotion the district of Vallecas (Madrid), born in the parish of San Alberto Magnoon the old Cerro del Uncle Pio (or Pius Felipe), an area that was of humble houses, gardens and pastoralism, in the southeast worker of the capital.

Its history is that of a neighborhood that grows next to its Virgin. In 1964, the archbishop of Madrid Casimiro Morcillo turned an old barracks of just a hundred square meters into a parish church. The first parish priest, José Luis Saura, promoted the housing cooperative «Nuestra Señora del Cerro»who raised 1,180 householdsThus, the name of the Virgin was forever linked to the effort to give a decent roof to the working families of Vallecas. In 1979the church was transformed into the present temple, a simple and dignified façade, blessed in November by the Cardinal Vicente Enrique and Tarancón.

The image and the sanctuary

It is venerated in the parish of San Alberto Magno (Calle Benjamin Palencia, Puente de Vallecas). Our Lady of the Cerro is, above all, the «Virgen peregrina» of the parish: an image designed to be kissed, adorned with flowers and carried on pilgrimage. The community has its own anthem and prayer to the Virgin of Cerro, and the pastoral care of the parish is entrusted by the Archbishop of Madrid to priests of Opus Dei.

Nature and recognition

Parish return Marian of San Alberto Magno (Vallecas), fully integrated into the life of the local Church. No consta that it is an advocation with declared civil patronage or that it has received canonical coronation: its strength is not in a title, but in the affection of several generations of the neighborhood.

Party and devotion

Devotion to Our Lady of Cerro is the Marian heart of the community of Saint Albert the Great. The faithful honor her as a pilgrim Mother, bringing a replica of her image to different Marian shrines, and they feel her as the Virgin who has accompanied the neighborhood from the time of the barracks to today.

Link to the Rosary

La Virgen del Cerro nació pegada a la vida más sencilla: la de un cerro de Vallecas, la de unas familias que pedían un techo. Así es también el Rosario: una oración humilde, de barrio y de hogar, que sube «al cerro» del corazón avemaría a avemaría. Llevar a la Madre peregrina de santuario en santuario es como pasar las cuentas del Rosario: caminar con María, de misterio en misterio, hasta llegar a Dios. Quien se crió a sus pies sabe que rezarle el Rosario es, sencillamente, volver a casa.