Our Lady of the Angels of Costa Rica

Tradition that a young woman found a small Marian image on a rock and that the image repeatedly disappeared from secured places and returned to the discovery site, where a shrine was built. The tradition locates the event at Puebla de los Pardos, Cartago, Cartago Province, Costa Rica and associates it with 2 August 1635 and the following days. The date and place are reported according to the official Catholic sources cited for this entry.^[1][3]

The identified witness or witnesses are Unnamed young woman of Puebla de los Pardos (traditional finder and witness to the image's repeated returns); Alonso de Sandoval (local priest and traditional witness to the image's disappearance and return). 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]

Official shrine and episcopal sources receive the discovery-and-return tradition as the origin of the Cartago sanctuary and national pilgrimage; the Costa Rican bishops record the image's 1824 patronage and 1926 pontifical coronation, and John Paul II joined the shrine's annual public celebration. The competent authority was The Catholic Bishops' Conference of Costa Rica and Popes Pius XI and John Paul II, national episcopal conference and Roman Pontiffs, acting with respect to Diocese of Cartago and Catholic Church in Costa Rica. The recorded judgment date is 1992-08-02, and its defined scope is The national patronage, crowned image, basilica, solemnity, annual romería, and public devotion linked to the 1635 discovery 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 detailed repeated-return narrative is supplied by the official national shrine, while papal sources refer more simply to the finding. None of the acts is a formal supernatural-character judgment.^[2][5]

Public devotion connected with Our Lady of the Angels 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]