Our Lady of the Refuge
Matamoros, Mexico (1720)
Jesuit missionary Juan José Gulica brought a painting of Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners from ltaly to Mexico in 1720.
In a dream, the Virgin told him to ask the Franciscans of Zacatecas to use and promote the image; they distributed over 150 copies.
In 1793 Franciscan friars came to the new settlement which would become Matamoros, renaming the area “Nuestra Senora del Refugio de los Esteros Hermosos” (Our Lady of the Refuge of the Lovely Marshes). The Cathedral of our Lady of Refuge, built in 1832, displays an 1886 painting of her. Her fiesta, celebrated in many Mexican towns, commemorates the coronation of the original “Refugium Peccatori” in the Jesuit church of Frascati, Italy, July 4, 1717.
Text and image used with permission.
Source: "365 Days with Mary" by Michael O'Neill
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