Our Lady of Cabeza

Our Lady of Cabeza
Location	Cerro del Cabezo, Spain
Witness	Juan Alonso de Rivas
Type	Marian apparition
Shrine	Basilica of Nuestra Señora de la Cabeza, near Andújar, Spain

Our Lady of Cabeza (Spanish: Nuestra Señora de la Cabeza, La Santísima Virgen de la Cabeza, Virgen de la Cabeza, Nuestra Señora la Virgen de la Cabeza), is a Marian apparition whose cult is centered at the Basilica of Nuestra Señora de la Cabeza, located in the Natural Park of the Sierra of Andújar, 32 km north of the city of Andújar, Spain. A Black Madonna, she is known popularly as La Morenita (“Little brunette”).

She is one of the patron saints of Andújar (the other is Saint Euphrasius) and the diocese of Jaén. Her name refers to the Cerro del Cabezo ridge where she is said to have appeared. She was declared patroness of Andújar by Pope Pius X on March 18, 1909 and of the Diocese of Jaén by Pope John XXIII on November 27, 1959.

According to the legend, when Saint Euphrasius came to Spain in the first century, he brought with him an image of the Virgin Mary to which he showed devotion. According to the legend, this image was given to Euphrasius by Saint Peter, and is said to have been the portrait that Saint Luke painted of the Virgin Mary (The original polychrome image itself, based on its artistic style, may have actually dated from the fifth century.)

In the 8th century, when Andujar was occupied by Moorish forces, the image was hidden atop one of the highest and inaccessible hills of the Sierra Morena, the Cerro del Cabezo. In the thirteenth century, a shepherd named Juan Alonso de Rivas, from Colomera, was watching over the livestock belonging to a neighbor from Arjona. Rivas was an elderly Christian, suffering from anchylosis and paralysis in his left arm.

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