Argentina Florencia Delucchi, muralist and teacher, received the commission of making a mosaic of the Virgin of Luján without knowing that it was a commission of Pope Francis. Thus began a unique experience in which, guided by the Virgin, he met again with his faith.
2025 began with an unusual call for Florence Delucchi, Argentine plastic artist graduated in Fine Arts, with more than 20 years of trajectory in muralism and teaching. “One day they call me and tell me: ‘You have to make a mosaic of the Virgin of Luján for a convent in Rome,'” he tells ACI Press.
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Although it was not a common request for her, Florence accepted the challenge and got to work, but not before studying the Virgin of Luján with several visits to her sanctuary and thoroughly observing numerous representations of the invocation to know her better.
His work combined two techniques: “Everything that is the Virgin, the mantle, the face, the rays, I did it with a modeled and baked clay, and then painted it with pigments, enamels and engobes. And the background is made with mosaic, with the technique of trencheswhich means ‘broken’ in Catalan, and are those irregular bits. ”
The piece, 160×80 cm and 190 kilos, was ready in just two months. “I say that the Virgin enlightened me. I never had to rebuild anything, no piece broke into the oven, the colors came out as I had thought about. That’s why I made a fan of the Virgin.”
In April, those who had summoned her visited Florence to see the finished work, and revealed the truth: “There I found out that he was not going to any convent in Rome, that he was going to the Vatican gardens and that it was a gift, a desire of Pope Francis. They tell me that he would get enthroned on May 8, and I thought: I hope they invite me, I hope I can go.
The invitation finally came. But a few days before traveling, on April 21, Pope Francis died. “This was the last thing he had to do. He came to see her finished in a photo, and he was very excited to bless and enthrone her,” says Florencia moved.
Even so, he traveled to Rome. “I went with the illusion that the Pope was chosen before May 8, and the ceremony was done the same.” On May 8, the Blanca Smoat announced to the world the election of Leo XIV, and the enthronement was postponed.
A tribute with tribute
Back in Argentina, the artist wondered: “When will it be done? Isn’t it?” The wait lasted until September 9: “A few weeks ago they told me that I was finally enthroned, so I went to Rome again,” he recalls.
“It was a ceremony Re Linda, super emotional because he felt like a tribute to Pope Francis. There was Cardinal Parolin, who was his secretary and his friend; Cardinal Sandri, also Argentine; Cardinal Vergez, who was secretary of Blessed Pironio; and Monsignor Karcher. There were also the nuns of the embodied verb, most Argentine, who sang a chacarra. I say that there was the presence of the Virgin and that of Pope Francis, ”he says.
“With this act, the desire was fulfilled that the Virgin of Luján is in that place where he used to go for a walk,” he says.
The Virgin took care that everything was “how had it to be”
Florence does not hesitate to attribute to the Virgin the care that surrounded the work from the beginning. “I modeled the whole silhouette and I had to leave it in pieces to put it in the oven. And in the baking, something can always fail. But I did not break a single piece, nor a color went wrong. Everything was like it had to be.”
“I never felt fear, no pressure,” and although he worked counterreloj, he also did not hesitate to finish it, or that he was going to get to the place where he should be.
Even when they took her to place the marble frame, the artisans who took care of that task told Florence an episode difficult to believe: “In Holy Week there was a terrible storm, the world fell. The Virgin was in the workshop where they were going to place the frame, supported on a table, and above there was a ventiluz. The hail broke the Claraboya and fell huge stones on the work. It happened absolutely nothing.
An inner change
Although he studied in a Catholic school, Florence acknowledges that he was “super away from faith.” However, this experience helped her resume that bond.
“I had her here in the workshop, she entered and touched her. The day they took her felt a void, a lack of protection … What was most lived was her presence: as I guided me, she told me where the way was. He gave me confidence and told me: Give me: Give me, let’s go.”
Therefore, she promised that if the Virgin arrived at the place where she had to arrive, she was going to walk to Luján. And this weekend he will fulfill his promise, joining the 51st youth pilgrimage.
This experience also helped her discover her connection with the thought of Pope Francis. “I started reading what I said about art: that your heart wrapped you, that you relieve your soul. They are things that one feels. I had the enormous illusion of knowing it, but well … things occur as they have to give.”
A work for eternity
Today, his mosaic of the Virgin of Luján already looks in the Vatican gardens, along with the other Marian warnings of Latin America.
“The opportunity they gave me this was unique. The whole process was crazy, and now knowing that it is there, that it will remain for eternity, nothing more and nothing less, it is incredible,” he says.
Those who wish to know the work of Florence or request some work can communicate with it through their Instagram account: @florenciadelucchi
Julieta Villar
I am a journalist, a graduate in Communication from the National University of La Matanza in Argentina. I have work experience in non -governmental organizations. Since 2016 I dedicate myself to Catholic journalism, first in the Argentine Catholic Information Agency (AICA) and, since 2022, as a correspondent for ACI Press for Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Bolivia.