Word of the Day: Our Lady of La Leche

LA LECHE, OUR LADY OF. Shrine in St. Augustine, Florida, dedicated to Nuestra Señora de la Leche, whose full title is "Our Lady, the Nursing Mother of Happy Delivery." It dates from 1565, when St. Augustine was founded by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, who was accompanied by four diocesan priests. The shrine is part of American's oldest mission, Nombre de Dios, where the first Mass was celebrated. Central to the shrine is an image of the Madonna about to nurse her Child. The original image, from Madrid, and first chapel have been destroyed. But the new statue, in the present chapel built in 1915, is an exact replica of the original one.

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The devotion to Our Lady of La Leche was brought over from Spain in the late 1500s, and the mission grounds served as the site of the first Marian Shrine in the United States. The centrepiece of the shrine is a statue of the Virgin Mary nursing the infant Jesus, which is a replica of the Our Lady of La Leche statue placed in a cathedral in Spain by Phillip III. The original chapel was destroyed in 1728 during the British siege of St. Augustine and was rebuilt in 1875 by Bishop Augustin Verot, though it later suffered damage from a hurricane. The current ivy-covered chapel, which seats about 30 people, was built in 1914 and is a replica of previous chapels built of coquina. The shrine is a popular religious pilgrimage site, with many visitors seeking blessings and intercessions for successful pregnancy and delivery