Basilica of the Virgin of Luján, Luján

The devotion at Lujan originated from a 1630 event in which oxen transporting a statue of the Virgin Mary refused to move until the image was allowed to remain at this location. Nearly four centuries of continuous veneration followed, shaped by key figures including Negro Manuel, the enslaved African who served as the statue's first guardian, and Father Jorge Maria Salvaire, whose promise to the Virgin led to the construction of the current basilica.

In 1630, Antonio Farias de Saa, a Portuguese settler in Santiago del Estero, sent for a statue of the Virgin Mary from Brazil to establish a chapel in his region. A sailor friend sent two terracotta images: one of the Immaculate Conception and one of Mary holding the infant Jesus. The caravan transporting them stopped overnight near the Lujan River, at a place then without significance.

The next morning, the oxen refused to move. The drivers changed animals, unloaded cargo, tried everything they knew. The cart remained immovable. Finally, someone thought to remove the box containing the Immaculate Conception statue. Immediately, the oxen moved freely.

The witnesses understood this as the Virgin's choice. She wished to remain here, on this unremarkable stretch of pampa. The statue was placed in the home of Don Rosendo Oramas, who built a rustic chapel for veneration. The other statue, which had caused no trouble, continued to Santiago del Estero and eventually disappeared from history.

A second miracle is recorded from 1671. When the statue was moved to a location that would become the town of Lujan, it twice returned mysteriously to its original shrine overnight, reinforcing belief in the Virgin's attachment to this specific ground. Whether understood as divine intervention or as the determination of devotees who carried it back, the story speaks to a persistence that characterizes the entire devotion.