Las Lajas Cathedral
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The National Shrine Basilica of Our Lady of Las Lajas ( es, Basílica Santuario Nacional de Nuestra Señora de las Lajas), commonly called Las Lajas Shrine (''Santuario de Las Lajas''), is a
basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name ...
church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...
located in southern
Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
. The basilica is situated within the municipality of
Ipiales Ipiales is a city and Catholic bishopric in Nariño Department, southern Colombia, near the border with Ecuador. It is located at around , with an elevation of about 2950 m. Ipiales is located on the high plateau called "Tuquerres e Ipiales," t ...
, in the Nariño Department, and is built inside the
canyon A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tenden ...
of the
Guáitara River The Guáitara River ( es, Río Guáitara) is a river of Colombia. It is a tributary of the Patía River. Course The Guáitara River rises on the border of Ecuador and Colombia on the slopes of Chiles Volcano and initially flows east, eventuall ...
. The present church was built in a
Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
style between 1916 and 1949 (33 years). The name ''Laja'' (
slab Slab or SLAB may refer to: Physical materials * Concrete slab, a flat concrete plate used in construction * Stone slab, a flat stone used in construction * Slab (casting), a length of metal * Slab (geology), that portion of a tectonic plate that i ...
) comes from the name of a type of flat
sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles ...
similar to
shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...
and
slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
. It is a popular pilgrimage site for Christians from both Colombia and neighboring
Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...
, due to a
Marian apparition A Marian apparition is a reported supernatural appearance by Mary, the mother of Jesus, or a series of related such appearances during a period of time. In the Catholic Church, in order for a reported appearance to be classified as a Marian ap ...
that is purported to have taken place here in the 18th century.


History


Overview

The inspiration for the church's creation was a purported miraculous event in 1754, when
Amerindian The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples. Many Indigenous peoples of the Am ...
Maria Meneses de Quiñones and her
deaf-mute Deaf-mute is a term which was used historically to identify a person who was either deaf and used sign language or both deaf and could not speak. The term continues to be used to refer to deaf people who cannot speak an oral language or have som ...
daughter Rosa were caught in a very strong storm. The two sought refuge between the gigantic ''Lajas'' (slabs of stone), when, to Meneses' surprise, her daughter Rosa exclaimed "the
Mestiza (; ; fem. ) is a term used for racial classification to refer to a person of mixed European and Indigenous American ancestry. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to people who are culturally European even though their ...
is calling me" and pointed to a
lightning Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electric charge, electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the land, ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous ...
-illuminated silhouette over the laja. This apparition of the
Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...
instigated popular
pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...
to the site and occasional reports of cases of
miraculous healing Faith healing is the practice of prayer and gestures (such as laying on of hands) that are believed by some to elicit divine intervention in spiritual and physical healing, especially the Christian practice. Believers assert that the healing ...
. An image appeared in the stone that is several feet inside of it. The image in the stone is still visible today. The existence of a shrine in this location was recorded in the accounts of friar
Juan de Santa Gertrudis Juan de Santa Gertrudis (1724 in Majorca, Mallorca – August 8, 1799 in Mallorca) was a Franciscan Spanish monk. Biography Juan de Santa Gertrudis was sent as a missionary to South America in 1757 and between 1758 and 1767 during his evangelizing ...
' journey through the southern region of the
New Kingdom of Granada The New Kingdom of Granada ( es, Nuevo Reino de Granada), or Kingdom of the New Granada, was the name given to a group of 16th-century Spanish colonial provinces in northern South America governed by the president of the Royal Audience of Santa ...
between 1756 and 1764. The first shrine was built here in the middle of 18th century from straw and wood. It was replaced with a new, larger shrine in 1802, which in turn was extended and connected to the opposite side of canyon with a bridge. The current church was built between January 1, 1916, and August 20, 1949, with donations from local churchgoers. It rises high from the bottom of the canyon and is connected to the opposite side of the canyon by a tall bridge.


Dedication

The Shrine of Our Lady of Las Lajas is a Roman Catholic basilica church dedicated to the veneration of Our Lady of Las Lajas Ipiales. It is located in southern Colombia and has been a tourism and pilgrimage destination since the eighteenth century. The Spanish Franciscan
Juan de Santa Gertrudis Juan de Santa Gertrudis (1724 in Majorca, Mallorca – August 8, 1799 in Mallorca) was a Franciscan Spanish monk. Biography Juan de Santa Gertrudis was sent as a missionary to South America in 1757 and between 1758 and 1767 during his evangelizing ...
(1724–1799) mentions the sanctuary in Book III, Part 2, of his four-volume chronicle of his 1756–62 journey in the south portion of the Kingdom of New Granada (titled "Wonders of Nature"). This is possibly the oldest reference to its existence.


The legends

Las Lajas Sanctuary in southwest Colombia is renowned for its stunning architecture, for a series of legends involving the appearance of the Holy Virgin Mary, and for a mysterious mural of unknown origin. Located in the southwestern Colombian state of Nariño, the Sanctuary sits on a 130-foot-high bridge built over the Guaitara river, less than seven miles from the Ecuadoran border. The neo-Gothic church was erected by worshipers between 1916 and 1953, to replace a shrine first built in the middle of the 18th century. According to popular belief, the Virgin Mary appeared to a woman and her deaf-mute daughter in 1754 at the same place where the church now stands. The woman, Maria Meneses de Quiñones, and her daughter, Rosa, were passing by the Guaitara river when they sought refuge from a storm. At that moment, Rosa shouted "Mum, the Virgin is calling me!" and pointed to an apparition of the Virgin Mary. The woman kept quiet about the apparition until something even less expected happened: after Rosa died, Mueces, determined to pray for her daughter's soul, returned to the place where her daughter and she had seen the Virgin Mary; the Virgin then miraculously revived Rosa, and mother and daughter could no longer keep the miracle a secret. The first shrine in the honor of
Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
's mother was built a few years after the alleged appearance, according to the journal of a friar who travelled through the region between 1756 and 1764. Half a century later, in 1802, a bigger shrine was built and worshipers erected the first version of the bridge that now allows access to the church. The miraculous apparition of the Virgin Mary is only the first of a number of legends and mysteries linked to Las Lajas Sanctuary. For example, nobody knows who made the image of the Virgin that is at the back of the church, behind the altar. According to some, the image was first seen when Mueces wanted to show a priest and other local people where her daughter had been revived. On arrival, the worshipers saw the image of the Virgin Mary and Jesus imprinted in a stone wall. The image supposedly extends several feet into the stone, but this has not been verified. It attracts thousands of pilgrims every year.


Pontifical approbations

*
Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...
— granted the venerated Marian image of the shrine a Pontifical decree of canonical coronation on 15 September 1952. *
Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
— elevated the shrine to a
minor basilica In the Catholic Church, a basilica is a designation given by the Pope to a church building. Basilicas are distinguished for ceremonial purposes from other churches. The building need not be a basilica in the architectural sense (a rectangular ...
in 1994 via Pontifical decree. By some measures, it is the second most popular pilgrimage site in Colombia, after
Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquirá Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquirá or the Virgin of Chiquinquirá is a Marian title of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Roman Catholic), Blessed Virgin Mary associated with a venerated image in the northern Andes region. Under this venerated title, ...
. Its location close to the Ecuador border makes it a popular destination for pilgrims from both countries.


References


External links

*Translation
"Our Lady of Las Lajas"
* ttp://www.traditioninaction.org/SOD/j145sdLasLajas_8-16.htm "Feast Days of Our Lady" {{Treasures of Colombia Churches in Colombia Buildings and structures in Nariño Department Roman Catholic churches in Colombia Basilica churches in Colombia Roman Catholic churches completed in 1949 Tourist attractions in Nariño Department Monuments of Colombia Roman Catholic shrines in Colombia Gothic Revival church buildings in Colombia 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Colombia