We’ve saved the most spectacular for last, but we’re going to split our photo evidence over two days.
One of the first things we did when planning our Costa Rican vacation was to book a visit to the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Los Ángeles in Cartago.
The church, originally constructed in 1639, is consecrated to the Virgin of the Angels after a young girl came a statue of the Virgin Mary carrying the infant Jesus on a rock in the woods. She took the statue home, only to find the next day it had returned to the same rock. After it happened again, she took it to a local priest, who determined Christ wanted a church built at the site. The statue itself, known as La Negrita, is kept in a golden shell inside the basilica and Costa Ricans and others throughout Central America continue to visit this Holy Ground to pay their respects and ask the Virgin Mary for her prayers.
We were there Aug. 5, three days after the countrywide pilgrimage, known as the Romeria, to the basilica. More than a million people annually will walk from different points of the country to the basilica, many crawling for large parts of the pilgrimage. And though the formal Romeria had just passed, we witnessed numerous people crawling from outside the basilica up to the altar rail, a sign of their incredible devotion. It was truly moving, and unquestionably the highlight of the trip.
52 Masses 