For eleven days, Costa Rica has celebrated the centenary of the Pontifical Coronation of Our Lady of the Angels, the country’s patron saint. Around her Basilica in Cartago, the Fifth Costa Rican Theological-Pastoral Congress, Eucharistic celebrations and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Reconciliation services, rosaries, concerts and oratories, theatrical performances, artistic activities, serenades, and fireworks displays have been held.
They have also had the traditional pilgrimages, among them that of the Augustinian-Recollect Family, which departed from the Boys’ Town with members of the Secular Fraternities, Augustinian Recollect Youth, faithful from the Parishes and Recollect ministries, the educational community of the Boys’ Town, Augustinian Recollect nuns, Recollect religious and postulants and aspirants.
On August 2, the day of the Solemnity, the main Eucharist was celebrated, presided over by the Bishop of Cartago, Mario Enrique Quirós, along with the other bishops of the Episcopal Conference, including the Augustinian Recollect Angel San Casimiro, emeritus of Alajuela and resident in the San Ezequiel Moreno Postulancy of Pozos de Santa Ana.
Authorities, organizations, institutions, and public service managers were attentive to ensure that the more than two million participants in the various events could do so in complete safety and that street cleaning, healthcare, and the management of the flow of people and vehicles functioned perfectly.
The National Shrine Basilica of Our Lady of the Angels invited all Costa Ricans to participate in this great celebration “with a spirit of pilgrimage, prayer and fraternity.”
The centenary of the Papal Coronation meant that almost 40% of the country’s residents participated at some point in the events in Carthage: two million in a country of 5.17 million inhabitants. It is, without a doubt, one of the most well-attended religious events in Latin America in proportion to the total population.
historic pilgrimage of the 1926 route, the year of the Pontifical Coronation, has been recreated, which brought together some 20,000 people at a time when the country had half a million inhabitants.
