Like I do every time I come to Argentina, I visited the Basilica of Our Lady of Luján (Buenos Aires).
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.
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