Our Lady of Good Health

            In Bojaca (Colombia, west of Bogota), the parish of Saint Lawrence Martyr conserves a popular and beloved image of the Virgin dating from the 18th century. The Spaniard Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada, who defeated the local chieftain called Bojaca, founded the city in 1537.

            In 1739 Jose Perez brought back from Granada (Spain) this image, an oil painting of the Virgin of Sorrows, with miraculous fame. It was first place in the chapel of a country farm, but when Jose died, it was given to the church in Bojaca, ran by the Augustinian Fathers. Its miraculous ancestry is attested by the devotion of the faithful and the marble plaques situated in a monument at the back of the church. From its position above the main altar, it constitutes one of the spiritual centers of the country.

            Each weekend, the population comes to have cars and other motorized vehicles blessed, to the point that the shrine has been nicknamed the “third automobile insurance”!