Our Lady of Suyapa

Devotions

A cedar carving barely two inches tall, found by a laborer sleeping in a Honduran cornfield in 1747, now venerated as the nation’s patroness.

Our Lady of Suyapa is a Marian devotion centered on a tiny cedar-wood statue, under three inches tall, discovered in early 1747 by a laborer named Alejandro Colindres near Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Declared Patroness of Honduras in 1925, the small image is kept year-round in the older church built for her, while a much larger basilica nearby hosts the crowds who gather for her February 3 feast, a national holiday, and Pope Francis raised that basilica to Minor Basilica status in 2015.

Quick Facts

Category: Marian Apparitions and Shrines — Major International Devotions
Origin: A tiny cedar-wood statue found near Tegucigalpa, Honduras, by the laborer Alejandro Colindres in early 1747
Feast: February 3 (Honduras; national holiday, marking the anniversary of the statue’s discovery)
Church status: An ecclesially recognized national shrine and devotion; Our Lady of Suyapa was declared Patroness of Honduras in 1925, and her shrine holds Minor Basilica status
Private revelation: Not necessary to the devotion as a matter of faith; the devotion rests on the statue’s providential discovery and centuries of devotional history rather than a reported apparition or message

What Is This Devotion?

Devotion to Our Lady of Suyapa centers on a strikingly small image: a cedar-wood carving of Mary under two and a half inches tall, small enough to be lost in a closed hand, yet honored as the spiritual heart of an entire nation. Hondurans venerate her as their principal patroness, and her feast on February 3 is kept as both a religious observance and a national public holiday, with the small statue formally regarded as holding the ceremonial title of Commander-in-Chief of the Honduran Armed Forces.

Origin and History

According to the tradition recorded at the shrine, in late January or early February 1747, a laborer named Alejandro Colindres was clearing cornfields on Piligüín hill northeast of what is now Tegucigalpa, together with a young boy sent to help him. Settling down to sleep for the night, Colindres woke in pain, feeling something hard beneath his side, and discovered a tiny cedar statue of Mary in prayer he had been lying on. He carried it home and placed it on his family’s altar, where it remained for roughly two decades; reports of favors and healings attributed to the small image began circulating from around 1768, prompting the construction of a chapel in 1777 and a formal blessing of the first shrine in 1780.

Devotion continued to grow through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and Pope Pius XI formally declared Our Lady of Suyapa Patroness of Honduras in 1925, fixing February 3, the anniversary of her discovery, as her feast day. As pilgrim numbers outgrew the small original church, a much larger basilica was built nearby beginning in the 1950s to accommodate the crowds; today the tiny original statue is kept year-round in the older church, now itself honored as a minor basilica, and is carried in procession to the larger Basilica of Suyapa only for her February feast, when it returns to the smaller church afterward. Pope Francis formally raised the Suyapa shrine to the rank of Minor Basilica on August 28, 2015, recognizing its enduring place at the center of Honduran Catholic life.

Catholic Theology

The devotion’s theological content is as unassuming as the image itself: a tiny, easily overlooked object has become, across nearly three centuries, a genuine focus of national prayer, illustrating the ordinary Catholic conviction that the size or grandeur of a sacred image bears no relation to the sincerity or fruitfulness of the devotion it inspires. Hondurans turning to “La Morenita,” as she is affectionately known, seek Mary’s intercession under the same confidence in providence that marked her own discovery — found, tradition holds, not sought.

How to Practice It

Make a pilgrimage to the Basilica of Suyapa near Tegucigalpa, Honduras, if able, especially around February 3.
Pray before an image of Our Lady of Suyapa, asking her intercession as patroness of Honduras.
Mark February 3 with prayer, the day kept nationally in Honduras as both feast and holiday.
Learn the documented history of the 1747 discovery, distinguishing the tiny original statue from the larger basilica later built to receive the crowds who venerate it.

Associated Prayers

When It’s Observed

February 3 is kept in Honduras as the feast of Our Lady of Suyapa and as a national public holiday, marking the anniversary of the statue’s 1747 discovery; it is not on the General Roman Calendar for the universal Church.

Church Status

Our Lady of Suyapa holds solid, sustained official standing: formal declaration as Honduras’s national patroness in 1925 and Minor Basilica status granted by Pope Francis in 2015. As with several other statue-centered devotions in this region, the Church’s approval concerns the devotion’s legitimacy and fruit rather than a certified apparition; the 1747 discovery account is received as long-standing shrine tradition, and readers should note that some published sources attach a later, mid-century date to the patroness declaration, though the best-supported dating places it in 1925.

Common Misconceptions

“The statue kept in the large Basilica of Suyapa is the original image.”

It is not, for most of the year. The tiny original statue found in 1747 is kept year-round in the smaller, older church built for her in the eighteenth century; it is only carried to the much larger modern basilica nearby for her February feast, after which it returns to the smaller church, where the faithful venerate it the rest of the year.

Frequently Asked Questions

How big is the statue of Our Lady of Suyapa?

Under two and a half inches tall, carved from cedar wood — small enough to fit easily in a closed hand, making it one of the smallest widely venerated Marian images to hold the status of a national patroness.

Who found the statue, and how?

A laborer named Alejandro Colindres, who was clearing cornfields near Tegucigalpa in early 1747 and reportedly discovered the small statue beneath him after waking in the night with pain in his side.

Why are there two churches associated with Our Lady of Suyapa?

The original, smaller church holds the tiny statue for most of the year and was built to accommodate the earliest generations of pilgrims. A much larger basilica was constructed nearby in the twentieth century once the crowds outgrew the older building, and the statue is processed there only for the February 3 feast.