Pilgrim Virgin Street
Sanogasta, Argentina: December 2000
Dear friends of Our Lady,
Please continue praying. Things are very difficult here in Sanogasta, Argentina. But, Our Lady can open doors in the last moment or whenever She wants. Many people remember Her all the time, and there is, in the midst of all these sad things, something very nice has happened.
Each neighborhood of this small town had to propose a name for the 400-year-old street that connects the main street with the old colonial chapel where the Catholic faith here was established. We proposed different names connected to the local history of the Spanish noblemen who founded the chapel and many other things. Here, there is an ongoing leftist campaign against the Catholic Spanish influence, so the politicians rejected the names we submitted.
So as to bring us to silence, they thought of a name that we would adore, a name that will be an enormous, unmerited honour and grace, notwithstanding the fact that political maneuver played a bigger role than devotion in the members of the City Council of Chilecito who thought of it. Nevertheless, it is recognition of the unique, historical significance of the Visit of the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima last December 2000. The name of the street is now called: "Imagine Peregrina de ]a Virgen de Fatima" (Pilgrim Image of the Virgin of Fatima) It is the street nearest to our house, so, of course, we will adopt it for our address, as you can imagine.
This street is significant because it is the street you must take to go to the church, the main point of this small town, so everybody passes by. It is very traditional because the big processions of Our Lady of the Candlelight and of St. Sebastian start and end there. Thus it has a high symbolic value. Please continue to pray for us.
Yours in the Immaculate Heart,
Luis Mesquita