About Our Lady of Las Lajas

• Events leading up to and the discovery of the Image
• 1754: Maria Mueses de Quiñones, an Indian woman from Colombia, is traveling through the Colombian countryside and is caught in a great storm. She seeks refuge in a grotto within the Guaitara Canyon at a place called Las Lajas (the Rock Slabs).
• She becomes frightened because there is a popular legend that the devil lives in this grotto. She begins to invoke the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary for protection. Suddenly, she feels someone tapping on her back, and in fear, flees back out into the storm.
• Several days later, Maria travels the same route. She carries her deaf-mute daughter, Rosa, on her back this time. Becoming tired, they stop to rest outside of the same grotto in the canyon.
• The deaf-mute child suddenly speaks, “Mommy, look at the mestiza who has detached herself from the rock with a little boy in her arms and two little mestizos at her side!” Maria becomes frightened, grabs her daughter, and flees.
• Maria tells others. The Indians are curious about the event, but no action is taken.
• Rosa disappears. Maria remembers the event that took place at the grotto and searches there.
• She finds her daughter kneeling before a woman and playing with a child. Seeing such a beautiful scene, and knowing that this is the Blessed Virgin Mary and the child Jesus, she falls to her knees.
• Some time later, Rosa becomes sick and dies. In her grief, Maria brings her dead child to the grotto and begs the Virgin for help. The child is brought back to life.
• Maria tells the locals about this extraordinary event. A large group sets out for the apparition site.
• Everyone sees the magnificent image of the Blessed Virgin Mary holding her son Jesus, along with St. Dominic of Guzman, and St. Francis of Assisi. Mary is extending a Rosary out to St. Dominic and Jesus a Franciscan cord to St. Francis.
• The three dimensional metal crowns were added later by devotees.
• Scientific study
• Geologists from Germany have bored core samples from several spots in the image. There is no paint, no dye, nor any other pigment on the surface of the rock. The colors are the colors of the rock itself and run uniformly to a depth of several feet.
• Approval
• In 1951 the Roman Catholic Church authorized the cult of the Nuestra Señora de Las Lajas Virgin, and it declared the sanctuary a minor basilica in 1954.