Our Lady of the Angels Day
August 2, Friday
According to tradition, La Negrita, the Black Virgin, is a small (less than a meter tall), probably indigenous or mixed race, representation of the Virgin Mary found on 2 August 1635 by a native woman. As the story goes, when she tried to take the statuette with her, it miraculously reappeared twice back where she had found it. The townspeople then built a shrine around the statue.[2]
In 1824, the Virgin was declared Costa Rica’s patron saint. La Negrita now resides on a gold, jewel-studded platform at the main altar in the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles in Cartago. Each 2 August, on the anniversary of the statuette’s miraculous discovery, pilgrims from every corner of the country (and beyond) walk the 22 km from San José to the basilica.