Anecdotes about the Virgin Mary

La Churona and the drought of El Cisne

El Cisne, Loja (Ecuador) (c. 1594)

High in the Loja mountains, in the small village of El Cisne, tradition places a severe drought and plagues that brought famine around 1594. Exhausted, the inhabitants were ready to leave. Pious legend recounts that the Virgin Mary then appeared to them and asked them not to abandon the place, but to build her a temple there, promising them food year-round.

They rebuilt the church, the rains returned, the crops flourished, and the village remained. Since then, the image—a carving of the Virgin with the Child—has been venerated with immense affection, and devotees affectionately call her "La Churona" because of her curly hair.

It's important to distinguish between these accounts. The appearance during the drought, the promise of food, and another version claiming the image was found in the Catamayo River belong to oral tradition; no contemporary document from 1594 confirms them, and even Wikipedia presents them with a cautious "it is said." The sculptor's identity is also uncertain: although some texts attribute it stylistically to Diego de Robles, no commission document has survived, so it remains a traditional attribution, not a proven fact.

The documented evidence is robust: the existence of the sanctuary and the image linked to the Franciscan evangelization of Loja, the continuous worship since colonial times, the canonical coronation celebrated on September 8, 1930, and the elevation of the sanctuary to Minor Basilica by Saint John Paul II in 1980. And the great pilgrimage: every August 17, the image leaves El Cisne for the city of Loja and remains there until November 1, accompanied by tens of thousands of pilgrims.

The proper name of the Marian devotion is Our Lady of El Cisne, not a title of the Rosary; however, as in so many sanctuaries, the recitation of the Holy Rosary accompanies novenas and processions. Today, millions of Ecuadorians, both within and outside the country, maintain their connection to their homeland through "La Churona," and the sanctuary receives votive offerings, photographs, and letters expressing gratitude for healings and protection, especially along the paths of migration.