Liebana’s Marian Apparition!

In 1487, there was a cowherder girl in trouble in the mountains around Liebana. Fog came down suddenly, and she was lost and all her herd scattered. Then it got dark. She prayed desperately, and asked Our Lady for light.

Our Lady and the Child Jesus appeared to the cowgirl and saved her. She then commanded the woman to go down to Aniezo, get the parish priest, and tell him to come to the cave near which she was appearing.

The shepherdess obeyed, and (after various troubles) the priest gathered several townspeople and came to the cave.

There they found a tiny, early medieval alabaster statue of Our Lady, holding the Child Jesus.

This statue is known as “La Santuca” (the little saint statue) by its friends. It is a miracle-working statue, and it is processed annually through the area with the largest Marian procession in all of Spain

Our Lady’s title in this place is “Our Lady of Light of Liebana”, and she was officially named the patroness of Liebana by Pope John XXIII. Since she has competition from St. Toribio and other monks, this is pretty cool.

The statue stays In a tiny chapel near the cave where it was found, for most of the year. On April 24, the statue is brought back to Aniezo’s church, where it remains for nine days of celebration.

On May 2, the statue is processed through several small towns and over to Santo Toribio, the site of the old medieval monastery of Liebana, and the place where the monastery’s small piece of the True Cross (brought there by Constantinople’s diplomatic gifters) is kept. The wood of the Cross is brought out to meet the statue, the procession goes inside, everybody goes to Mass, and the piece of true Cross is displayed for veneration. Then the processional route is reversed, and the statue goes back to Aniezo.

Then the statue goes back to its chapel, which is called the “ermita” or hermitage, on May 4.

You can see that this is a big deal.

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