The Virgin of Izalco

For almost a century, the Izalco Volcano erupted continuously. There was a constant fear that it would erupt and descend on the skirts wrecking the villages around it.

The parish priest of the church of Dolores in 1935, Salvador Castillo, gathered a group of parishioners and undertook with the image of the Immaculate Conception aloft. They organized a procession around. Suddenly, the volcano calmed down, and the lava and smoke did not come out anymore.

This moment was considered a miracle of an unprecedented scale by everyone, and on that day, December 10th, 1935, they placed a statue of the Virgin (figure 1) right where the lava altered its course and stopped. Plus, yearly on the same day, many Izalqueños travel a long way, in the morning to the skirts of the silent Izalco Volcano. Later, they join a mass in honor of their Holy Mother for multiple reasons, including faith, and gratefulness to the Virgin for stopping the lava, among others. All these actions continue, even though the crater has been passive for over seven decades.

Figure 1. The Virgin of Izalco. ¹

Inspired by Leyendas de El Salvador’s version.
Location: Izalco, El Salvador

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