| Sanctuary of Our Lady of Las Lajas | |
|---|---|
| Basic information | |
| Location | Ipiales, Nariño, Colombia |
| Affiliation | Roman Catholic Church |
Las Lajas Sanctuary (in Spanish Santuario de Las Lajas) is a basilica church located in the southern Colombian Department of Nariño, municipality of Ipiales and built inside the canyon of the Guáitara River.
The church is of Gothic revival architecture and was built from January 1, 1916 to August 20, 1949, with donations from local churchgoers, replacing an old nineteenth-century chapel. The name Laja comes from the name of a type of flat sedimentary rock similar to floor tiles found in the Andes Mountains. There was a claim that an apparition of the Virgin Mary was seen. The image on the stone is still visible today.
The inspiration for the church's creation was a result of a miraculous event in 1754 when an Amerindian named Maria Mueces and her deaf-mute daughter Rosa were caught in a very strong storm. The two sought refuge between the gigantic Lajas, when to Maria Mueces's surprise, her mute daughter, Rosa exclaimed "the mestiza is calling me..." and pointed to the lightning-illuminated 'painting' over the laja. The oldest miraculous event was recorded in the accounts of Fray Juan de Santa Gertrudis's journey through the southern region of the New Kingdom of Granada between 1756 and 1764. Without the benefit of sight, Fray Juan traveled through cities, fields and villages blind and on foot from Ecuador to Narino, Colombia begging people for money to build the Las Lajas 19th century chapel. At the completion of the chapel, Fray Juan miraculously regained his vision, he believed, as a result of his deep faith in the Virgin Mary of Las Lajas. In 1951 the Roman Catholic Church authorized the Nuestra Señora de Las Lajas Virgin, and it declared the sanctuary a minor basilica in 1954.