Our Lady of Cotoca

Traditional discovery by three falsely accused rural men of a small Marian image in a tree trunk at Monte de la Grandiosa; after they carried it away, the image was said repeatedly to return to the place where it was found. The tradition locates the event at Monte de la Grandiosa, Azusaquí, near Cotoca, Santa Cruz Department, Bolivia and associates it with Late eighteenth century (traditional). The date and place are reported according to the official Catholic sources cited for this entry.^[1][3]

The identified witness or witnesses are Three unnamed rural men (traditional finders of the image while fleeing a false accusation). The article reports the tradition according to its competent ecclesial sources; it does not fill gaps with later devotional embroidery or treat every attributed message and anecdote as part of the authoritative judgment.^[1][4]

The Bolivian episcopal conference recounts the found-image and repeated-return tradition as the origin of the Cotoca devotion; in 2026 the Archbishop of Santa Cruz celebrated the Eucharist for the inauguration of a chapel at the place officially identified as the site where the Virgin of Cotoca appeared more than two centuries earlier. The competent authority was René Leigue, Archbishop of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and the Bolivian Episcopal Conference, Metropolitan archbishop and national episcopal conference, acting with respect to Archdiocese of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. The recorded judgment date is 2026-03-15, and its defined scope is The archdiocesan shrine devotion, pilgrimage, and new chapel at the officially received discovery or apparition site associated with the Cotoca tradition.^[1][2]

The competent ecclesial acts receive or authorize public devotion connected with the tradition, but they do not decide that the reported manifestation was supernatural. Liturgical observance, a shrine, pilgrimage, canonical coronation, patronage, or papal reception must not be converted into an authenticity decree that was never issued. The late-eighteenth-century dating is a broad conversion of the episcopal source's period description, not an exact event date. The men are unnamed in the cited account. The narrative and the chapel's inauguration evidence public ecclesial reception, not a judgment that the discovery or repeated returns were supernatural.^[2][5]

Public devotion connected with Our Lady of Cotoca is authorized within the scope expressed by the competent acts. This permits Catholic prayer, pilgrimage, liturgical or shrine life, and pastoral reception only as those acts actually provide; local and universal observance remain distinct.^[1][2]

A devotional permission is not a blank authorization for commercial exploitation, sensational predictions, disobedience, novel doctrine, or every text circulated under an apparition's name. Pastors retain responsibility for sound catechesis, the Sacraments, protection of the faithful, and any qualifications or restrictions attached to the judgment.^[1][2]

Public Revelation is complete in Jesus Christ and transmitted in Scripture and Apostolic Tradition. A Marian apparition cannot add to the Deposit of Faith, correct the Gospel, or create an alternate teaching office. At most, an authentic private revelation helps the faithful live Christ's definitive Revelation more fully in a particular historical setting.^[6][7]

No Catholic is obliged to accept a private revelation as an article of divine and Catholic faith, even when competent authority has made a favorable judgment. Catholics must, however, respect the Church's actual permissions, cautions, and prohibitions. Exact terminology safeguards both legitimate Marian devotion and the primacy of Christ, whose grace alone gives every authentic apparition its meaning.^[6][5]