Lord of Miracles of Buga

A witness mentioned in ecclesiastic documents of that time of the miracle of the fire in 1605, when the Bishop of Popayan ordered the destruction of the image, there had been a lady named Luisa Sanchez. This could refer to the washing woman who had originally found the crucifix or possibly to one of her surviving relatives.

A testimony given to one Inquisition Visitador (inspector), in 1665, corresponds to Doña Luisa de la Espada, a daughter of one of the Buga Patriarchs that donated the money to build the first Hermitage. According to her sworn statement as recorded in the archives, she swore she had seen the crucifix placed in the fire but not burning, only transpiring an oily liquid.

During the 16th and the 17th centuries the image was known among the common people of the Cauca's Valley as The Lord of the waters, but the increasing fame of the miracles obtained by its devotion changed to The Lord of Miracles.

Basilica del Senor de los Milagros de Guadalajara de Buga

Among the first printed official accounts is the full story of the Miracle of the Guadalajara river written by Franciscan Friar Francisco G. Rodríguez in 1819, the same year Colombia became independent from Spain. There are records showing that General Simon Bolivar visited Buga among the places he traveled across in his independence campaign for the south west of the country after the battle of Boyacá in his route to Equator. This unique Christ, modeled from materials of the western Colombian Andes receives its name from the region of Buga. During the colonial times the region was populated by the aborigines called Bugas, who were violently suppressed by the Spaniards when they arrived in that region in the early 16th century.

In 1783 the rector of the Popayan seminar, and also the director of the sanctuary of Buga, with the approval of the Bishop, sent a report to Rome containing an extensive list of miracles of the healings received by the devotees. Pope Píus VI responded to this communication with 22 “breves perpetuos”, special instructions in which he granted generous indulgences to all the pilgrims that attended the sanctuary. The copy of this Pontifical document is filed in the Archives of the Basilica.

The image is a full-length representation of a copper coloured skinned Christ, a long haired young man with high cheek-bones and cleft chin covered by curled beard. His features are visibly altered by the torture suffered in the agony of the Passion, and dreadlocks simply parted in the middle framing his face. He is falling, hanged from the cross, with the hands and feet pierced by the strong nails. His head is slightly inclined. He has a suffering but at the same time very serene expression in his eyes.

This Christ image didn't really have a crown of thorns already modeled on it, so the devotees added a diadem, made of plants of the Andes, to the head, but without thorns, and fixed the rays of gold with precious gems on it. Apparently the figure is naked, but it has been dressed along the centuries with fine embroidered cloths that are periodically changed and cover the upper legs and belly. His head has been partially covered by a diadem of plants used to make baskets or hampers in the Andean artistry and decorated with fine rays in gold and with precious stones that were donated by the devotees in gratitude for the miracles attributed to Christ in their prayer to Our Lord of Miracles.

Its entire cross is framed by waiving flames made of silver and platinum, possibly added in between the 17th or 18th century that may at the same time represent its divine nature or remembrance of the miracle of the fire, when the image was tested by being put in a bonfire by the orders of the inquisition inspector. The base of the cross has a garden of tropical flowers made of platinum, silver and gold, showing the image also as hanging from a tree of life. All these additions in noble metals follow a millennial custom to offer votive elements in thanksgiving to God for the miracles received.

Although it has all the aspects of a wooden Colonial Christ, the figure has been discovered recently to be made actually as if modeled like a very fine ceramic, with porcelain quality, from a mixture of very fine highly plastic mud and grass that correspond to the plants found on the shores of the Guadalajara river until present. There are no precedents of this same quality of porcelain work in all the art craft of the Americas. It represents a singularity never repeated again either in the Pre-Hispanic or the Colonial religious art of not only Colombia but any other place in the entire Andean region of South America.

The original color of the figure is of mysterious origin, since it resembles human skin, and it is possible that it was protected subsequently with layers of varnish for religious figures used in colonial times by artisans hired to either repair or protect the figure, although there are no records of such repairs in the church archives.

The Lord of Miracles of Guadalajara of Buga has at present the size of a short adult man (1.30 m, about 4.5 ft). It has a distinctive look that is not really European, due to the relative dark color of his skin, but definitively of a man of middle east, resembling a lot the depictions of Christ from the Holy Mandylion and Keramion, or the mount Sinai monastery:

On 5 October 2006, a team of specialists used four different complementary technologies to analyze the artifact: X rays, ultraviolet rays, pigment, and stratigraphic analysis. The analyses of the image certified its incredibly well preserved condition after several centuries.

The angular stone for the construction of the sanctuary was blessed by Ortiz, the Archbishop of Popayán. Also attending the religious ceremony was the President of the United States of Colombia, Rafael Nunez in 1886. The building of the church took more than 15 years, and was interrupted by the war of the thousand days in between 1900 and 1903, which is the worst civil war that ever occurred in Colombia.

The inauguration on 2 August 1907 was dedicated by the authorities of the Department regional government and representatives of the national government as well as ecclesiastic authorities. The Solemn Benediction of the Basilica was carried out by the then Archbishop of Popayán, Msgr. Antonio Arboleda, on the Feast of St. Alphonsus Liguori, founder of the Redemptorist Order.

The minor Basilica is 33 meters in height, 80 meter long, and it had a French Clock installed on 18 March 1909. In between its two beautiful towers there is a statue of Christ Redemtor of 2 ½ m of height, in melted iron. The five bells are imported from France. These are the biggest church bells in Colombia. The bell called the "Miracle Maker" weighs 1.111 kg; the bell called Perpetuo Socorro emits a note of FA in Bmin, weighting 778 kg, the bell called St Therese of the Jesus Child sounds a note of Sol, and weighs 548 kg. The smallest bell weighs 289 kg, and the biggest one (built in 1955), with three (3) tonnes.

the Basilica covers a total area of about 2,088 sq meters. The Colombian film industry has found inspiration in the apparitions for some interesting productions, such as Strategy of the Snail, a 1993 film by Jorge Cabrera, in which Misia Triana (played by actress Delfina Guido) accidentally finds the silhouette of Virgin Mary in a wall of the house in dispute.

From an anthropological point of view, the image represents an interesting mixture of Christianity, introduced to South America by the Spaniards, and the cosmology characteristic of the Andean Cultures, whereby God communicates with the humans through rivers. For thousands of years streams or lakes were magical and mystical places of contact with the supernatural. The aborigines used great bodies of water as channels of communication with the great beyond, the world of the ancestors, and to pray to their divinities.

In Andean Colombia there is a legend about the Golden Man, El Dorado, an Aborigine Chibcha King who every year navigated the volcanic Guatavita lake, located over three thousand meters above sea level on a raft, accompanied by his priests; th King was carrying incredible offerings of gold to the gods to be thrown in the water. The Chibchas believed that their entire civilization came from a woman and a baby that suddenly emerged from the waters of another Andean lake in its territory.

Buga is currently located in the middle of the Cauca's valley, a region that was populated in ancient times, since at least 1000 years before Christ, by some of the most advanced prehispanic Colombian civilizations: Kalima, Quimbaya, Malagana, Katios, all among the best goldsmiths of the Americas. It was Sebastian de Benalcazar, a Lieutenant of Francisco Pizarro, who, in 1555, already confirmed as governor of Cauca Province, founded Guadalajara of Buga.

Roman Catholic sources claim many miraculous and supernatural properties for the image such as the fact that the figure has maintained its structural integrity over nearly 500 years, while wooden replicas normally last only some few decades before they start to suffer degradation.

1. The washer woman found a tiny crucifix that was the size of her hand in the Guadalajara river and then it grew up to the size of a boy of 10 years old in a night. That was the first miracle.
2. In 1605, the Christ figure was burnt in a fire for two days. After the fire had gone out, the crucifix began to secrete oils.
3. The sudden move of the stream from its original riverbed to facilitate the peregrination of devotees coming from the city of Buga.
4. Marino A. Molina, a professional basketball sportsman who represented Colombia in the 1st Bolivian games of 1938, was healed being 6 years old of an infection of Gangrene in his mouth that was diagnosed as fatal and fret part of his left cheek and jaw. His mother prayed the Novena of our Lord of Miracles of Buga.
5. Tulia M. Aldana, who became the first national bank executive woman of Colombia in 1949 (Almagran), was healed by 1930 of a tumor in her right groin that was diagnosed as malignant by physicians who had recommended surgery, without any treatment after prayers of her grand mother to Our Lord of Miracles of Buga.
6. A worker in a mine in Peru who had had an accident and lost the power of speech and sight, was healed after he prayed to Our Lord of Miracles of Buga.
7. Romelio Cosio recovered the full motion on his legs after having been diagnosed with irreversible paraplegia. The miracle occurred when he was in prayer in front of the Crucifix. He literally left his crutches and start to walk normally without them.
8. Teresa Moreno had a nervous chronic spasm or tic that prevented her from talking or eating normally. After she prayed to the Christ figure, she was healed.
9. A boy of the Amazonian region of Caqueta was born with a severe infection in his lungs. Doctors predicted that he would soon die. Yet he survived, having been healed after prayers to Our Lord of Miracles of Buga.
10. In 2005, a youngster from Cundinamarca, Andean Colombia, suffered an accident that left her in a coma. After some months of prayer by her family using Our Lord of Miracles novena, she recovered consciousness.
11. Having as witness a priest, Fr. Guillermo Giraldo, a man who had been diagnosed as brain dead by physicians returned literally to life. His wife prayed to this Christ.
12. After three years praying the Novena to Our Lord of the Miracles of Buga, Marina Benítez became a mother. She had previously been diagnosed as sterile by physicians.
13. José Luna is a devotee who traveled from Mexico to Buga to give thanks to Our Lord of Miracles of Buga for the healing of his spine, after being bedridden for 4 years.

Several Pontiffs have granted recognitions to the venerated image, namely the following:

• Pope Pius VI: In 1783, Pope Píus VI in response to a report of miracles occurred in the Sanctuary of Buga, with 22 “breves perpetuos”, gave special instructions granting generous indulgences to all the pilgrims that visit the sanctuary. The copy of this Pontifical document is filed in the Archives of the Basilica.
• Pope Pius VIII: In 1819, the Roman Catholic Church officially approved the Novena of the Lord of Miracles of Buga, designed by the Franciscan Friar Francisco G. Rodríguez, as a devotion offered by all that suffer disparate situations or try to defend impossible causes, in particular to overcome incurable diseases.
• Pope Pius XI: On 23 June 1937, Pope Píus XI granted to the sanctuary the title of minor Basilica. This decree was applied by Cardinal Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (later Pope Píus XII).
• Cardinal Primado of Colombia, Pedro Rubiano: On 2 August 2007 he presided the solemn Mass of celebration of the first 100 years of the Basilica of Our Lord of Miracles of Buga.

The annual festivities in honor of the Lord of Miracles of Buga (Colombia) in 2014 consisted of three special events that the Redemptorist friars, who have administrated the Basilica along all its existence, and the Pilgrims had celebrated:

• First, the 130 years since the arrival of the Redemptorist Community to the city of Guadalajara de Buga
• Second, the 75 years since it was received the title of Minor Basilica, granted to the shrine by the Holy See
• Third, 25 years of service to the pilgrims and the social works of the “Pilgrim House Foundation”[3]

These three reasons made the days of the Novena and the Feast Day (September 5–14) and the pilgrimage of thousands and thousands of pilgrims to the Shrine/Sanctuary a sight rarely seen before.