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Our Lady of Luján
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Our Lady of Luján
from left to right: Juniorate Sisters in Argentina; Novices at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, DC; Our Lady of Luján is the special patroness of our Religious Family and her image accompanies us in all our foreign missions. Her statue is a 26" terracotta figure of the Immaculate Conception covered in an ornate blue and white dress and crowned as Queen. She also has a halo of twelve stars and the moon at her feet. Behind her, there are rays like the spikes of a wheel on an arch bearing the words: "You are the Virgin of Luján, the First Foundress of this Town" (Es la Virgen de Luján, Primera Fondadora de este Villa). These elements are related to her miracle of predilection for the place beside the River of Luján. History The history of the shrine begins in 1630, with a farmer who emigrated to Argentina from Portugal. Coming from a place where the Faith flourished, he was saddened by the lack of religious influence in his adopted district, and in particular in his village of Sumampa. He decided to help the situation by building a chapel on his land. He decided to write to a friend in Brazil, he asked the friend to send him a small statue of Our Lady for his chapel. The friend, unsure of how the farmer wanted Our Lady to be depicted, sent two statues—one of the Madonna with Child, the other a representation of the Immaculate Conception.
Having first been transported by sea, the images were then placed on a cart for the journey inland. Because of hostile natives in the region, a number of carts and pack horses banded together in a caravan. When darkness overtook the travelers after leaving Buenos Aires, they camped at the isolated ranch of Don Rosendo de Oramus. Early the next morning, the wagons and animals were readied for the rest of their journey. One by one the carts began to move, all except the one that carried the images of Our Lady. Progress was stalled when the driver was unable to coax the animals forward. The other drivers in the caravan came to help—but all the efforts were unsuccessful. Finally, it was decided that the animals might somehow be influenced supernaturally. And so it seemed, since the animals willingly The statue of the Madonna and Child continued its journey and arrived safely in Sumampa, where it is still venerated under the title of Our Lady of Consolation. As for the statue of the Immaculate Conception that was taken off the cart, it was solemnly carried to the ranch and enthroned in a room of its own. This room soon became a popular shrine and remained so for the next 40 years. Additional chapels, including the private one of Dona Ana de Mattos, became the temporary shrines for Our Lady of Lujan over time. As other miracles were attributed to her intercession, the pilgrims began to come to pray in ever greater numbers. In 1677 her image was kept in a church built in her honor, until a larger one replaced it in 1763. Work on a large Basilica reached its completion in 1904 when the image of Our Lady of Lujan was solemnly transferred there. Every October large crowds of youth walk the 40 miles from Buenos Aires to Lujan in an overnight pilgrimage of great Marian devotion. During the period of independence in the late 18th and early 19th century, the flag of the free Argentina was designed by Sargent Major Carlos Belgrano to reflect the "blue and white of the Immaculata of Lujan." She has always been invoked as the patroness of all the regions of La Plata: Paraguay, Uraguay and Argentina.
Among the Popes who have honored Our Lady of Luján are Clement XI, Clement XIV, Pius VI, Pius IX, Leo XIII, Pius XI, Pius XII, and John Paul II. In 1824 Fr. John Mastai Ferretti visited the shrine on his way to Chile. He later became Pope Blessed Pius IX who defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conceptionon on December 8, 1854. Because of the reputation of the shrine, Pope Leo XIII decided in 1886 to honor the miraculous statue with a papal coronation. In 1930 Pope Pius XI solemnly declared Our Lady of Luján Patroness of Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay—a long standing spiritual reality, now blessed and confirmed by the Holy Father himself. Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli served as the Papal Legate to the XXXII International Eucharistic Congress held in Buenos Aires in October, 1934. He visited the Basilica on October 15 and later recalled the day saying "upon entering the Basilica, whose two spires rise to heaven like shouts of jubilation, it seemed as if we had arrived at the depths of the soul of the great Argentine peope." When he later became Pope Pius XII, he made a radio address to the pilgrims in Luján on the occasion of the First Marian Congress in Argentina in 1947.
In 1982, Pope John Paul II became the first pope to visit Our Lady of Luján in person. During this historic mission of peace and encouragement at a difficult time in the history of Argentina, the Holy Father celebrated an outdoor Mass in the square of the Basilica of Our Lady of Luján and bestowed upon her the Golden Rose. Both in his homily of June 11 and his Angelus back in Rome reflecting on the trip, he commented on Our Lady's never failing maternal solicitude for the faithful in times of distress. Sixteen years later in Rome, John Paul II gave a replica of the image to the Argentine National Parish during his pastoral visit there.
The Golden Rose is a gift granted by the Pope to nations, cities, basilicas, sanctuaries or images. It is personally blessed by him on the fourth Sunday of Lent, anointed with the Holy Chrism and dusted with incense. This Rose consists of a golden rose stem with flowers, buds and leaves, placed in a silver vase lined on the inside with a bronze case bearing the Papal shield. Pope Leo IX is considered as the originator of this rite in the year 1049. In the Americas, the Rose has been given to Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico, to Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil, and on June 11, 1982 John Paul II personally bestowed one on Our Lady of Luján,
While Fr. Buela, our founder, was still a seminarian he made a pilgrimage to the Basilica of Our Lady of Luján and prayed to her for an abundance of priestly and religious vocations to the Church. From the beginning of our Religious Family, we have always considered that the gift of our vocations comes from God through her hands. left: Fr. Carlos Buela in Italy; right: Arab novices in Alexandria, Egypt.
At the close of 1988 the first group of sisters traveled from San Rafael to the province of Buenos Aires and made a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Luján. There they made their first vows of Marian slavery and consecrated our new institute to the Blessed Virgin. Our Lady of Luján Around the World Every year our Religious Family honors Our Lady of Luján on May 8, her feast day, with Novenas, Solemn Masses and the Marian Consecration of our new Novices. Her image has accompanied us to all our foregin mission and can be found in chapels, parishes, and convents around the world. Through the intercession of Our Lady of Luján may our Religious Family always receive many holy vocations—generous souls who seek only to give glory to God and to work tirelessly for the salvation of souls in every land. from left to right: Our Lady of Luján honored by parishioners in Papua New Guinea; an IVE missionary priest in the Moruka (North West Territory) of Guyana, South America; Sister with First Communion children at the parish of Our Lady of Luján in the Philippines.
BUELA, Carlos Miguel, Maria de Lujan (1999), Ediciones del Verbo Encarnado, San Rafael, Mendoza, Argentina (entire Spanish text available in PDF) CRUZ, Joan Carroll, Miraculous Images of Our Lady: 100 Famous Catholic Portraits and Statues (1993) TAN Books, Rockford, IL, “Chapter 1: Our Lady of Lujan” pp. 1-5. |
moved when the statue of the Immaculate Conception was removed from the cart.
Papal Honors
On September 30 of that year he blessed the crown, which was made of pure gold set with 365 diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires, 132 pearls and a number of enamels depicting the emblems of the Archbishop and the Argentine Republic. The papal coronation of Our Lady of Luján took place on May 8, 1887. The celebrant chosen by the Pope for this event was Archbishop Aueiros, who made a pilgrimage at that time in thanksgiving to Our Lady for sparing his archdiocese from the scourge of cholera.
The Golden Rose
Patroness of Argentina.
Mother of Our Vocations
A sign of our small religious family is also always present in the Basilica of Luján. On March 7, 1984 we fulfilled a vow that we had made to Our Lady of Luján in thanksgiving for the possibility of being able to begin with our experience of religious life. The artist Amado Armas made a beautiful medallion with the profile of St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort in white cement with a beige tone on a black marble backing. This image can be found in the first chapel of the right ambulatory next to the camarin of the Virgin in the Basilica of Luján. At the foot of the medallion is engraved the motto of John Paul II taken from The True Devotion of the Blessed Virgin Mary (# 233) written by St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort: TOTUS TUUS.
