Our lady of Luján: National identity and mass mobilization in Argentina

Abstract

Our Lady of Luján is the Patron Saint of Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. Albeit its history goes back to colonial times, it was in the second half of the nineteenth century that its worship started to grow, hand in hand with the social and political transformations sweeping across Argentina and the stimulus emanating from Rome to Marian devotions around the world. This chapter focuses on the developments surrounding the cult of Luján, closely linked, in many ways, with the deep social, economic and political transformations underpinning the creation of both the State and the Church in Argentina, which completely changed the foundations of Argentine society itself since the nineteenth century.