ACI Prensa Staff, May 2, 2023 / 16:30 pm
More than 134,000 pilgrims came this past weekend to the village of Villa de la Quebrada in the Diocese of San Luis in central Argentina to bring their intentions and fulfill their promises to Christ, whose renowned image is venerated there.
According to local tradition, in the mid-1800s a landowner named Tomás Alcaráz went to cut a tree for lumber to build a house for one of his children. When he struck the tree with an ax, a hollow within it was uncovered and inside there was a wooden crucifix. No one in the area recalled placing a crucifix in the hollow of a growing tree and the growth of the tree around it did not harm the crucifix.
Amazed at his find, Alcaráz set up a home altar with candles to venerate the image. Soon after, however, the crucifix was gone; no one in the family had moved it, and it was found again in the hollow of the tree. This was taken as a sign to build a church there to house the image, which was done, and the church with the image became a pilgrimage site.
In the 1940s, the bishop of San Luis, Emilio Antonio di Pasquo, commissioned life-size Stations of the Cross made of Carrara marble, which were sculpted in Italy and transported to the Villa de La Quebrada.