The sanctuary of Our Lady of the Angels receives every May 1st since 25 years ago a very large Recollect delegation, which walks on a pilgrimage just over four kilometers that separate the Children’s City from the National Basilica.
The Augustinian-Recollect Family in Costa Rica celebrated on May 1st the 25th anniversary of their annual pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Angels, in Cartago. It is the seat of the country’s patron saint and a spiritual center of great ancestry for Costa Rican Catholics.
In 1999, for the first time, the communities and ministries of the Augustinian Recollects in the country decided to organize a joint pilgrimage. Since then, except for the years of the pandemic, the religious, contemplative nuns, members of the Secular Augustinian-Recollect Fraternity, the Augustinian-Recollect Youth, Christian Mothers of Santa Monica, seminarians and prospects, pastoral agents meet in the City of Children to leave, in procession together, well identified, to the sanctuary.
They are just under five kilometers of path carried out with the prayer of the rosary and other prayers and songs, taking advantage to get to know each other better the members of the Recollect Family, and to ask for the intercession of the Virgin.
At 9:15 in the morning the pilgrimage left, which concluded with a Eucharist in the Sanctuary at 11 in the morning with the participation of all the Recollect priests present. The delegate of the Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine in Costa Rica, Carlos Eduardo Álvarez, presided over the ceremony.
After a snack in the small square of the Basilica, everyone returned to the facilities of the Children’s City, where everyone was invited to a coffee with live music and the rest of the day in coexistence, celebration, and joy.
The Basilica of Our Lady of the Angels of Carthage has been since 1999, a national architectural heritage. The neo-Byzantine style was inaugurated in 1924 after twelve years of work. It is in the same place where, according to tradition, Juana Pereira in 1635, found a small stone image of the Virgin on a large rock today preserved in the crypt.
Her faithful soon attributed numerous miracles to her and her devotion reached all of Costa Rica. After a small hermitage was built, it was replaced by larger temples of solidity and capacity until an earthquake on May 4, 1910, forced the construction of the current one. Next to the stone from which the Virgin was found there is a spring of water highly appreciated by the faithful.
Currently, Our Lady of the Angels is the main religious pilgrimage center of Costa Rica. The festival is celebrated on August 2 and brings together up to two million people from all over the country.
