The Statue No One Could Move. Now Pope Leo XIV Has Come to Her
A clay statue just fifteen inches tall, nearly four hundred years old — and today Pope Leo XIV, the first American Pope, celebrates Mass before her in Luján, Argentina.
In 1630, according to tradition, an ox cart heading north across the Argentine pampas stopped by the Luján River and would not move again until one small crate was taken down. Inside was a little statue of the Immaculate Conception. From that moment begins the story we tell in this video: el Negro Manuel, the African slave who guarded her for the rest of his life and is now on the path to beatification; a statue that, according to the chronicles, kept returning to its place on its own; Father Jorge María Salvaire, who made a vow when he thought he was about to be killed; Pope Leo XIII, who blessed her crown; and John Paul II, who came to pray before her while Argentina was at war.
We at Christian Way Center rebuilt this story from the sources: the 18th-century chronicles, the 1674 bill of sale preserved in Buenos Aires, and the work of Argentine historians.
Chapters
0:00 The little statue waiting for the Pope
1:13 Two Virgins on one cart
2:05 Manuel, the guardian
3:05 Who wrote this story down
3:40 The statue that came back
4:44 The bill of sale of 1674
5:28 The missionary’s vow
6:28 The first Leo
7:09 The Pope in wartime
8:14 The second Leo
8:50 One lamp burning
Sources
– Pedro Nolasco de Santa María, account of the origins of the devotion to Our Lady of Luján (1737)
– Jorge María Salvaire, Historia de Nuestra Señora de Luján (1885)
– Juan Guillermo Durán, “La historicidad de un personaje central de la piedad lujanense,” Revista Teología (Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina), no. 136 (2021)
– Archivo General de la Nación, Buenos Aires: bill of sale of el Negro Manuel (Sala IX, 48-6-2, vol. 38)
– Juan Guillermo Durán, “La coronación pontificia de Ntra. Sra. de Luján (1887),” Revista Teología (2006)
– Shrine of Our Lady of Luján, Novena 2024
– Vatican News, mosaic of Our Lady of Luján in the Vatican Gardens (September 9, 2025)
Footage and images
Archivo Histórico RTA (Archivo Prisma), Junta de Historia de Luján, Archivo Hugo Panzarasa, DNews, Vatican News, Wikimedia Commons. Some scenes set between 1630 and 1886 are AI reconstructions and are marked on screen.
🙏 Tell us in the comments where you’re watching from, and let’s pray together: Our Lady of Luján, stay with us. Amen.
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