Lujan: Our Lady of Lujan

In 1630, a Portuguese resident in the State of Rio de la Plata, owner of a huge territory in the country (Sumanpa Santiago del Estero) 1200 km from Buenos Aires, wanted to build a chapel to the Holy Mother of God on his domain to re-awaken the faith of the surrounding population. He asked one of his countrymen who lived in Sao Paolo, Brazil, to send him a little statue of Our Lady. His friend, not knowing how the farmer wanted the statue to look like, sent two of them: one of the Madonna and Child, the other as the Immaculate Conception. The statues were first shipped by sea, and then placed in the convoy of carts transporting the goods brought on the same long journey.

After spending the night on the banks of the River Lujan, the convoy was unable to start again in the morning because the oxen whose cart was transporting the two statues refused to move. The drivers insisted and tugged all together to no avail! Seeing that the occurrence was unusual, they decided to lighten the cargo by removing the two small statues. When the statue of the Madonna and Child was taken out, the oxen remained planted there. When the statue of the Immaculate Conception was removed, they moved forward.

Our Lady of Consolation

It was decided that the statue of the Immaculate Conception would remain there since the Virgin obviously wanted to make that place her home. The statue of the Madonna and Child continued her 1,150 km journey to Sumampa. It is still venerated there under the name of Our Lady of Consolation.

Near the banks of the River Lujan, on the property of Don Rosendo, a very rudimentary chapel was built for the little statue of the Immaculate Conception, and entrusted to the care of a Black slave named Miguel. From the beginning the small shrine became increasingly more and more popular. Miguel served as sacristan, devoting himself to the poor and the sick. But in 1663, a new road was traced and the old road passing by the shrine fell into disuse. The place began to receive fewer visitors. Miguel, however, remained the faithful sacristan of the Virgin.

A certain Dona Ana de Mattos, who owned another ranch in the region, proposed to Don Rosendo's son to move the statue onto her property, now crossed by more travelers. In 1671, the statue was moved to a place called El Arbol Solo, which eventually became the town of Lujan.

The day following her transfer, the statue disappeared, to be found again in her former little shrine. She was brought back but mysteriously returned to her first dwelling in the same way. Some first accused Miguel to have stolen the statue to bring it back to his home, then it was realized that that it couldn't have been so. Dona Ana sought the advice of the authorities. After the ruling, the statue of Our Lady was brought in solemn procession from Don Rosendo's ranch to Dona Ana's chapel, accompanied by her trusted sacristan Miguel, who stayed there to serve her. After this the Virgin consented to stay and never "ran away" again.

One person stands out in the history of Lujan: Father Jorge Maria Salvaire. A Frenchman on his father's side, but also a Spaniard through his mother, he was part of the first group of Lazarist missionaries who came to Lujan. In 1874, he was sent to evangelize the indigenous on their lands. The hostile aborigines captured him and sentenced him to be executed by arrows. The missionary invoked the Virgin under her title of Our Lady of Lujan, vowing to write her story and to restore her shrine.

Providentially, the son of the cacique saved him. Attributing his release to Our Lady, he fulfilled his vow to publish the history of the Virgin of Lujan in 1844, which he did in two heavy volumes. He also had a jewelled crown made in Paris, especially blessed by Pope Leo XIII, and the solemn coronation of the statue took place on May 8, 1887, in the presence of 40,000 people. Eight days later, the archbishop of Buenos Aires laid the first stone of the future basilica.

Patroness of Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina

During the period of the independence, from the late 18th to the early 19th century, the Argentinean flag was designed by Carlos Belgrano to reflect the blue and white colors of the Immaculate Virgin of Lujan, who is invoked today as the Patroness of all the countries of La Plata: Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina.

_______________________________