The image of the Virgin of Luján that had been stolen from the Basilica Santa Rosa de Lima, in the City of Buenos Aires (Argentina), was recovered and will return to the temple with a great celebration scheduled for August 15, Solemnity of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin.
A little over a month ago, a man who entered the basilica, located in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Balvanera, to ask for assistance, took the image of the Virgin and took it away, as recorded in the security videos.
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From that moment, the local parish priest, Father Sebastián Sury, began a search campaign for the image.
Father Rodrigo Barros, local priest, told the television program Polyhedronfrom Canal Orbe 21, how they recovered the image, with a story that, he considered, “truly is of faith, it is from God.”
“This story started badly because a person came to ask for assistance, I went to get him a blanket, and he ended up stealing the Virgin, and it also caused pain and anger in some people,” the priest recalled.
The person who stole the image did so around 6:00 p.m. (local time), and “after 8:00 p.m. he was already in that area offering it for a little money,” he explained.
In his attempts to sell it, this subject met a couple of Paraguayan origin who have been living in Argentina for many years, “and as soon as they saw this man who was offering the Virgin, they offered him some money that they had—not too much—and they bought the image,” he said.
“But as soon as they bought it they said: this image is from somewhere, they got it from somewhere, maybe even from some church, they thought. And that same night, the lady lights a candle to the Virgin, prays to her and tells her: ‘You have to go back to your house, at some point you are going to return to the place where you are from,’” she explained.
“This story began like this: he stayed in that house, this family prayed to him every day, then they contacted a priest from the Villa 31 neighborhood, in Retiro, they told him that they had an image of the Virgin, that someone had offered it to him, and that for her it was from some parish, some chapel or some significant place,” he continued.
The priests of Villa 31 then contacted the parish priest of Santa Rosa de Lima and, after a few weeks, Father Barros together with an auxiliary sister of the parish went to look for the image, and were able to share a moment with the family who He took care of her during that time.
“We were sharing with that family, very excited to meet each other. They told us how they had obtained it. They are a family of faith, very humble, very simple, with a big heart. That was what impacted us the most,” said the priest.
“Tears came to their eyes when we told them this story, about how the Virgin had left here, and the truth is that we were also very emotional, we couldn’t believe it and we couldn’t stop thanking God for meeting them and for this gesture of returning her. to say: the little Virgin has to return to her house.”
Father Barros compared this story with the stories of Negro Manuel, the first custodian of the Virgin of Luján, to whom the image of the Virgin “disappeared” to go “to see some other children.”
In this regard, he reflected: “The Virgin not only awaits the visit of her children, but we also see that the Mother is like any Mother, who goes out to meet her children.”
When will the Virgin return?
“The celebration is being organized, the great celebration of the return of the image to the temple and that it can be here for this Solemnity, but we are inviting this family, this couple, their son,” Father Barros anticipated.
“If they can come to accompany us, we would like them to be present at the Mass and perhaps this lady—who is called Isabel—can also enter with the Virgin and everyone here can receive her,” he hoped.
The Mass will be on Thursday, August 15 at 7:30 p.m., in the basilica located at Av. Belgrano 2216, in the City of Buenos Aires. Until then, the image remains in the private chapel of the parish house, and “it is intact,” the priest said.
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.