Basilica of Our Lady of Miracles of Caacupé

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Caacupé takes its name from the Guaraní ka'a kupe, "behind the yerba mate grove". The story goes that a Guaraní convert named José, hiding from hostile warriors, promised to carve an image of the Virgin if he survived, and the small wooden statue venerated here, dressed in white and blue as the Immaculate Conception, is said to be his work. A first sanctuary was inaugurated on 8 December 1765, and the earlier church served as a hospital during the War of the Triple Alliance. The present basilica was designed by Miguel Ángel Alfaro, who had stone brought by cart from nearby Cerro Cristo Rey; its first stone was laid in 1945, and a simpler plan was finished decades later. John Paul II came here in 1988. Nearby, pilgrims drink from Tupãsy Ykuá, the spring of the Virgin.