With the motto “Mother, praying, we make a pilgrimage to your heart”, the city of San Nicolás, in the province of Buenos Aires (Argentina), prepares to receive on September 25 a multitude of pilgrims who will arrive to honor the Mother , in its dedication to Our Lady of the Rosary of San Nicolás, 41 years after its first appearance.
In this context, the Bishop of San Nicolás de los Arroyos, Mons. Hugo Santiago, encouraged the community to participate in the festivities, which will begin at zero hour on September 25 to celebrate “Our Mother’s birthday.”
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At 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, the central Mass will be celebrated, presided over by the bishop.
On the eve of the central festival, this Saturday, September 21, the image of the Virgin will walk through the streets of the city in the morning, and at night the torchlight procession will take place.
When calling on the faithful to participate, Bishop Santiago stressed that it is “a family gathering” and encouraged: “Don’t miss it!”
Those who cannot attend can follow the broadcast on the Bishopric’s Facebook page.
History of the invocation
The invocation of Our Lady of the Rosary of San Nicolás gained popularity as a result of the Marian apparitions that began on September 25, 1983 to a lay woman, mother of a family, named Gladys Quiroga de Motta.
In the visions, the Virgin transmitted messages to the woman encouraging prayer and conversion, and warnings about the dangers of distancing herself from God and the difficult times that the world would have to go through. In her messages, the Virgin asked Gladys to build a sanctuary in her honor, to spread devotion to the holy rosary.
The seer identified the image of her visions in an old figure of the Virgin of the Rosary that was forgotten in the bell tower of a local parish, so it was restored and exhibited for her devotion, which soon became very popular in the area and in the country.
In 1989, the then Bishop of San Nicolás, Bishop Domingo Salvador Castagna, authorized the construction of the sanctuary that would have been requested by the Virgin.
Bishop Castagna’s successor, Bishop Hector Cardelli, inaugurated the completed sanctuary and presided over the coronation of the image in 2009. He also began to spread the messages and declared the supernaturality of the phenomenon. The community calls him “the Bishop of the Virgin Mary.”
The Catholic Church has not yet officially declared the authenticity of the apparitions. However, it has allowed and encouraged devotion to the Virgin of the Rosary of San Nicolás, which receives more than 1.5 million faithful each year.
During the ministry of the current Bishop, Mons. Hugo Santiago, it was determined that the messages should stop being publicly disseminated.
Juliet Villar
I am a journalist, with a degree in communication from the National University of La Matanza in Argentina. I have work experience in non-governmental organizations. Since 2016 I have been dedicated to Catholic journalism, first at the Argentine Catholic Information Agency (AICA) and, since 2022, as ACI Prensa correspondent for Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Bolivia.