Overview
- On Sept. 24–25 large public celebrations took place across Peru and Argentina with thousands attending solemn masses, street processions and overnight vigils in cities including Paita, Juliaca, Tucumán and San Nicolás.
- In Paita the archbishop of Piura and Tumbes, Luciano Maza Huamán, presided over the principal mass and led the consecration of a renovated altar at the Santuario de Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes.
- Tucumán combined the Merced feast with the province’s commemoration of the 1812 Battle of Tucumán in ceremonies led by Archbishop Carlos Sánchez and attended by Governor Osvaldo Jaldo.
- San Nicolás marked the 43rd anniversary of the 1983 apparitions tied to Gladys Motta with large pilgrim columns and a diocesan framework that in 2016 declared the events 'worthy of faith'.
- Municipalities carried out public works, security and transport plans and cultural programming such as Juliaca’s parade of 44 folkloric groups, showing how civic identity, local tradition and church organization shape the annual Merced observances.