Overview

• Thousands of devotees from across Argentina and neighboring countries such as Uruguay and Peru gather at the El Campito sanctuary for the annual observance.
• The day opened at midnight with the traditional greeting to the Virgin, continued with an overnight vigil, and features hourly morning Masses before the afternoon procession.
• Municipal authorities implement traffic and security operations to manage large crowds around the riverside sanctuary and surrounding streets.
• The devotion traces to reported apparitions to Gladys Quiroga de Motta beginning in 1983, which the local diocese recognized as of supernatural character in a 2016 decree.
• El Campito, one of Argentina’s largest churches with capacity for roughly 8,000–9,000 people, has received tens of millions of pilgrims over the decades.