Each year on Aug. 2, people throughout Costa Rica set aside time to honor their Patron Saint Virgen De Los Angeles or the Lady of the Angels known as La Negrita.

La Negrita Day is a public holiday in Costa Rica observed on August 2nd each year.

The story of this special Marian celebration dates back to August 2, 1635, according to historical reports from the Costa Rican National Library.

The tradition began when a young woman named Juana Pereira, a resident of Cartago Province, was looking for firewood so that her mother would be able to cook the family meal when she found a little stone doll on a large rock next to a spring of crystalline water. The child took the doll to her home.

The next morning when the child went out to find more wood, she was surprised to find a stone figurine identical to the one she found the previous day.

 

Thinking it was another doll she happily took the new figurine home. When she arrived, however, she found that the first doll was missing.

The next day, the same thing happened: a new doll on a stone and the doll at home was missing. This time the child was very frightened. She ran home to tell her mother what was happening and both went to the house of the town priest, Father Alonso Sandoval, to deliver the doll and tell him what was happening.

Sandoval took the doll, put it in a box and dismissed the matter. The next day, however, when he went to look for the little stone doll, it was no longer in the box.

That same morning, the little girl went back to the same forest to collect firewood as usual and again found the same stone doll, right over the same large stone. The child and her mother went again to Sandoval’s home to report the situation, and he advised them that it was a kind of message from the Virgin.

Sandoval and some villagers decided to take the little stone doll to the local church and lock it up in the tabernacle.

The next day when he opens the tabernacle he finds that the doll is not there. Sandoval finally concluded that the little stone doll, which looks like a mother holding a baby, is a sign from God and the Virgin Mary herself, asking that the village of Cartago build a church on that same large rock where the stone doll was found the very first time.

The stone image is now in the church at Cartago. It measures about 20 centimeters and is composed of volcanic rock, graphite and jade.

Since the rock is black, people call it La Negrita, but it is presumed to be the image of the Virgin of Los Angeles. The image has a round face, slanted eyes, a nose and a small mouth. In her left arm, she holds the baby Jesus whose right hand is raised in an attitude of blessing.

The name given to the image is Virgin of Los Angeles because on Aug. 2, the day of the discovery, the Franciscan Order venerates its patron saint, Santa María de Los Ángeles.

On September 24, 1824, by decree of the highest political authorities of the country, the Virgin of the Angels was declared the official patroness of Costa Rica.

Today, La Negrita is visited by many faithful from around the world. The image was crowned in 1926 and Pope Pius XI declared the shrine of the Queen of Angels, a basilica.

After a two-year hiatus, La Romería or pilgrimage, has returned to in-person due to the covid-19 pandemic. This year millions of pilgrims culminate their celebration today, Tuesday, Aug. 2.

 

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