Anecdotes about the Virgin Mary

"The oxen that refused to follow: the Virgin of Luján"

Luján (Argentina) (1630)

Around 1630, a Portuguese landowner named Antonio Farías de Sá, residing in Sumampa, commissioned a friend in Brazil to create an image of the Immaculate Conception for the chapel on his estate. In reality, two small terracotta images of the Immaculate Conception arrived, one for Sumampa and the other for an estate further south. Loaded onto carts, they departed from the port of Buenos Aires for the interior.

Upon reaching a spot known as "the lone tree," on the banks of the Luján River, one of the carts stopped for no apparent reason: the oxen couldn't move. The drovers unloaded the entire load, but the cart still wouldn't budge; only when they lowered the crate containing one of the religious images were the animals finally able to pull it.

Next to that first chapel, tradition places "Negrito Manuel," an African slave who was said to have been the first sacristan and custodian of the image, and who dedicated his entire life to caring for the Virgin, renowned for his great devotion. From that humble beginning was born one of the most beloved Marian shrines in the Americas: Pope Leo XIII canonically crowned the image on May 8, 1887, and in 1930 Pius XI declared Our Lady of Luján patroness of Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay.