Our Lady of the Angels Costa Rica

Feast: August 2nd

The city of Cartago, like many others in colonial times, segregated the whites from the Indians and mestizos. In the city a stone cross marked the limits.

We are in the vicinity of the year 1635, in the section called "Puebla de los Pardos" and Juana Pereira, a poor mestizo, has gotten up at dawn to, as every day, look for the firewood she needs. It is August 2, feast of Our Lady of the Angels, and the dawn light that illuminates the path between the trees, allows the Indian to discover a small image of the Virgin, simply carved in a dark stone, visibly placed on a large rock on the path of the road. With great joy Juana Pereira picked up that treasure, without imagining that five more times she would find it again in the same place, since the image disappeared from closets, chests, and even from the parish tabernacle, to return tenaciously to the rock where it had been found.

Then everyone understood that the Virgin wanted to have a place of prayer there where she could give her love to the humble and the poor. The image, carved from local stone, is very small, measuring only about three inches in length. Our Lady of the Angels carries Jesus on her left arm, in which she gracefully gathers the folds of the mantle that covers her from the head. Her face is rounded and sweet, her eyes are slanted, as if slanted, and her mouth is delicate. Its color is leaden with some golden sparkles like tiny stars scattered throughout the sculpture.

The Virgin is currently presented to the veneration of her faithful in a beautiful monstrance of noble metals and precious stones, in the form of a shining radiance that completely surrounds her, visually increasing her size. From the base of this "monstrance" sprouts a fleur-de-lis topped by the angel holding the stone image. Only the faces of Mary and the Child Jesus can be seen, since a precious mantle protects it and embellishes it at the same time.

The "Negrita" as she is called by the Costa Ricans, was solemnly crowned on April 25, 1926. Nine years later, His Holiness Pius XI elevated the Sanctuary of the Queen of Angels to the dignity of Minor Basilica.

To Carthage comes a constant pilgrimage of devotees who come to visit their Mother of Heaven; many enter on their knees, as an act of humility and thanksgiving and then go to pray before the rock where the blessed image was found. This stone has been worn by the rubbing of so many hands that gratefully caress it while they pray, give thanks and ask for relief from their pain, suffering or needs. Beneath this stone springs a spring whose waters are collected by those who come in search of mercy and health. Water is a sign of baptism. There is nothing else that Our Lady wants more than for us to live deeply the graces of our baptism.