The 3 Marian shrines that Pope Leo XIV will visit during his trip to South America
Pope Leo XIV’s South American itinerary includes Marian shrines in Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru. In Florida, Uruguay, he will celebrate Mass at the shrine of the Virgin of the Thirty-Three, whose devotion is linked to the country’s independence and whose image was declared Uruguay’s patroness by Pope John XXIII. The Pope will celebrate Mass at the Basilica of Our Lady of Luján in Argentina, a shrine whose tradition dates to 1630. In Chiclayo, Peru, he will visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Peace, a devotion that inspired him during his years as bishop; the program includes a meeting with clergy and pastoral workers.
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Pope Leo XIV’s South American itinerary includes three Marian shrines: the National Shrine of the Virgin of the Thirty-Three in Uruguay, the Basilica of Our Lady of Luján in Argentina, and the Shrine of Our Lady of Peace in Peru. Their histories connect Marian devotion with Uruguayan and Argentine national traditions, while the Chiclayo shrine has a personal significance for Leo, who served as bishop there.
In Florida, Leo is scheduled to celebrate Mass at the National Shrine of the Virgin of the Thirty-Three on Nov. 8. The small wooden image is associated with a tradition that, after Uruguay’s 1825 independence declaration, the 33 patriots went to pray before it and entrusted the nation’s future to Mary.
The devotion takes its name from those independence leaders. Pope John XXIII declared the Virgin patroness of Uruguay in 1962, and John Paul II visited the shrine in 1988.
The account of Our Lady of Luján dates to 1630, when two religious images were being transported by oxcart. Near the Luján River, the oxen reportedly would not move until the crate containing the image of the Immaculate Conception was removed; those present took this as a sign that the Virgin was to remain there.
Manuel, an enslaved African entrusted with caring for the image, stayed with it for decades and helped spread the devotion and raise money for a chapel. The image was solemnly crowned in 1887, and the Virgin of Luján became Argentina’s patroness. Leo is scheduled to celebrate Mass in the square before the basilica on Nov. 11.
The Shrine of Our Lady of Peace is tied to Leo’s years as bishop of Chiclayo. In its visitors’ book, he recorded in 2015 that he entrusted his life and episcopal ministry to the Virgin; people who knew him there recall that he often visited the shrine to pray.
Leo later chose the shrine as the site of the main celebration of the World Day of the Sick in January. On Nov. 13, he is scheduled to return to meet representatives of the Peruvian Church, including bishops, priests, religious, seminarians, and pastoral workers.
The three stops have distinct roles in the itinerary: Leo will celebrate Mass at the shrines in Florida and Luján, while the Chiclayo visit centers on a meeting with members of the Peruvian Church. Their shared connection is devotion to Mary, expressed through national history in Uruguay and Argentina and through Leo’s pastoral ties in Peru.
Marian devotion’s influence on Latin American Catholic identity
Marian devotion has helped shape Latin American Catholic identity not simply by adding distinctive devotions to the faith, but by giving Catholic belief a recognizable cultural and communal form. In the teaching of the popes represented here, Mary’s many local titles make her a motherly presence within the histories and cultures of Latin American peoples; popular devotion to her has also helped transmit the faith through families and communities. This identity is diverse rather than uniform, and its Marian character is properly Catholic when it leads believers to Christ and is nurtured, where needed, by pastoral guidance.
Latin American Marian devotion is both widespread and locally particular. John Paul II names Our Lady of Guadalupe, Aparecida, Luján, and other regional invocations, describing them as ways peoples across the continent express devotion and seek Mary’s protection on their pilgrimage of faith. The variety matters: the shared Catholic faith is not expressed through a single image or cultural style, but through many national and regional forms.
That pattern helps explain how Marian devotion can contribute to a broad sense of spiritual belonging without erasing local identities. John Paul II describes Mary as a mother whose love creates and preserves closeness among her children, and says that devotion to her has helped sustain a spiritual unity among Latin American peoples. This is a theological account of shared identity, not a claim that the continent has one culture or one history.
This popular piety, in Mexico and in the whole of Latin America, is indissolubly Marian.
The word popular here does not mean that devotion is merely informal or outside the Church. John Paul II says it can be a genuine expression of a people’s faith, shaped by the encounter between evangelization and local culture. He also insists that it should be guided and sustained by pastors and purified when necessary. In other words, popular Marian devotion belongs to Catholic life, but it is not beyond discernment.
The Guadalupe tradition offers a particularly clear example of what the Church calls inculturation: the Gospel taking root in a culture and transforming its authentic values, while being expressed through forms that people can recognize as their own. John Paul II interprets the mestizo face of Our Lady of Guadalupe as an image of this process, in which Indigenous cultural values are integrated into Christian life.
The same source presents Juan Diego—described as poor and excluded—as a humble instrument in a mission that helped give rise to the “pluriform” face of Latin America. This emphasizes that the continent’s Catholic identity is not only the inheritance of prominent institutions or leaders; in this account, it is also shaped through the faith and witness of ordinary people.
Benedict XVI likewise describes the Guadalupe image as a sign of the Saviour’s presence to Indigenous and mestizo people. The image points beyond itself: Christ, he says, is the foundation of human dignity and the source of hope, consolation, and joy. Marian devotion thus becomes a way of receiving and expressing the Christian message in a culturally resonant form, rather than a substitute for that message.
The influence of Marian devotion is not only symbolic. John Paul II says that popular piety helped present and propagate the faith in people’s lives, and that the rosary in particular supported the unity and perseverance of families. He also observes that, in conditions of scarce priests and great distances, fervent Eucharistic and Marian popular piety helped sustain the faith of the first evangelization.
This connects devotion with the ordinary social settings in which Catholic identity is learned and practiced. Prayer, worship, sacraments, and liturgical seasons are described as realities experienced not only by individuals, but also by families and social groups. Marian devotion can therefore reinforce a communal way of living the faith—not just a private relationship with Mary.
The Church’s account also connects this piety with a wider network of Catholic belonging: devotion to saints and patronal feasts, affection for the Pope and pastors, and love for the Church as a universal family. The image is of a living religious mosaic, with Marian devotion as one strong thread among others. The Church is called to protect and promote this popular piety and, where needed, purify it.
A Catholic account of Marian identity must keep Mary’s place clear. At Zapopán, John Paul II describes her as mother, queen, protectress, and model. People honor her, ask for her intercession, and seek to imitate her as disciples of Jesus. He explicitly rejects the idea that this devotion competes with Christ’s unique mediation: Mary’s role, he says, depends on Christ and leads believers to him.
This is an important distinction for understanding why Marian devotion can be central to Catholic identity without being the center of Christian faith. The Guadalupe image, for example, is interpreted as signaling the presence of the Saviour; Mary’s maternal presence is meaningful precisely within the mystery of Christ and the Church. In Benedict XVI’s words, she points toward Christ as the source of human dignity and hope.
Mary’s own biblical song, the Magnificat, reinforces that orientation: it is a song of praise to God and, in Benedict XVI’s account, also expresses the hope of the poor and the fulfillment of God’s promises. Marian devotion is therefore most authentically Catholic when it deepens trust in God, encourages discipleship, and directs praise toward Christ.
These sources present Marian devotion as a major influence on Latin American Catholic identity: it gives local expression to a shared faith, accompanies the encounter of Christianity with diverse cultures, and helps sustain family and communal religious practice. But they do not treat every custom as automatically sound or sufficient. The repeated call for pastoral guidance and purification means that devotion should be evaluated by whether it expresses the Christian faith faithfully and leads people toward Christ.
Nor do the sources support reducing Latin American Catholic identity to Marian devotion alone. They place it within a broader life of worship, sacraments, Scripture, saints, families, pastors, and the universal Church. Marian devotion is a powerful and distinctive thread in that fabric—not the whole fabric.