The Catholic Patriotic Minute #67: Our Lady of La Leche
Catholics For Catholics Special Edition | October 13th, 2026
America’s Devotion to Our Lady of La Leche: The Oldest Marian Shrine in the US
Ever since the 1600s, Catholics have made pilgrimages to the site of the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche built in honor of Our Lady of La Leche in St. Augustine, Florida, to pray for their family, marriages, children, miscarriages, and infertility. Not only is this shrine the oldest one in the United States, but the devotion to Our Lady of La Leche is also the oldest Marian devotion in America’s history.
The practice of venerating Our Lady of La Leche began in America upon the arrival of Spanish Catholics in Saint Augustine, Florida. King Philip II of Spain sent Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles and his sailors to the New World in 1565. When the men first laid eyes on the discovered land on August 28, 1565, they named it St. Augustine, as August 28th was his feast day.
On the nativity of Our Lady, September 8, 1565, they arrived at St. Augustine. On the same day, Father Mendoza Grajales, their missionary priest, celebrated the first Mass recorded in what would become America’s first permanent European settlement, and oldest Catholic mission and parish.
They named it La Misión de Nombre de Dios–the mission of the Holy Name of God. As the Spanish Catholics settled La Florida, they introduced the Catholic faith and their love for the Blessed Mother to the natives, including the Timucua, Guale and Apalachee.
In the early 1600s, the Spanish established a sanctuary, devoted to the Blessed Mother, on the spot where Father Mendoza Grajales said the first Mass. The chapel was dedicated to Nuestra Señora de La Leche y Buen Parto–Our Lady of the Milk and Happy Delivery. The chapel housed a statute of the Blessed Mother, nursing the Child Jesus as she gazed and smiled at Him.
The Spanish settlers brought this devotion to the New World because it was growing in popularity back in their homeland at the time. But, the origins of this veneration of our Lady of La Leche can be traced back to Bethlehem and Rome. One of the oldest–if not the oldest–images of the Blessed Mother is a fresco in the Catacombs of Priscilla in Rome. Dated to the third century, around 230-240 AD, this fresco depicts the Blessed Mother nursing the Child Jesus.
Near the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, there is a pilgrimage spot called the Milk Grotto. As recounted by tradition, the Holy Family took refuge here during the slaughter of the innocents, and the Virgin Mary nursed the Child Jesus. The story retold is that a drop of her milk touched the rock in this grotto, turning it white.
For centuries before the Spanish settlers encouraged devotion to Our Lady of La Leche in the New World, pilgrims–both Catholic and Muslim women–visited the Milk Grotto, praying for the Blessed Mother’s intercession in regards to their struggles with pregnancy. Pilgrims have written letters to the friars serving the Milk Grotto about the blessings and miracles delivered through Our Lady’s intercession after their pilgrimages, and still do so presently.
In 1677, King Philip II learned of the thriving veneration for Our Lady of La Leche and ordered a shrine to be built to honor the Blessed Mother under this title. The first shrine was destroyed when the British were at battle with the Spanish settlers. Bishop Augustin Verot, the apostolic vicar of Florida, purchased land, which included the site of the original shrine, in 1868.
The Diocese of St. Augustine was established on March 11, 1870, with Bishop Verot as its first bishop. Bishop Verot built another shrine dedicated to Our Lady of La Leche in 1875, but a storm destroyed it. The shrine was rebuilt in 1915, where a replica of the first statue of Our Lady of La Leche was enshrined.
In 1931, Bishop Patrick Barry of the Diocese of St. Augustine initiated an annual pilgrimage to the shrine. To this day, pilgrims visit the shrine to venerate Our Lady of La Leche, praying for their marriages, children, infertility, and miscarriages through her intercession.
The foundations of the original 1677 shrine were discovered in 2011 and are currently being restored. In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI approved the local feast day of Our Lady of La Leche, October 11, and the annual celebration of this feast in the Diocese of St. Augustine. In 2019, The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops elevated the religious site to be the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche. On October 10, 2021, the canonical coronation of the image of Our Lady of La Leche was performed under Pope Francis at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine.
Cardinal Carlos Osoro Sierra of Madrid, Spain, presided over the coronation, as the envoy for Pope Francis. He spoke of the American veneration for Our Lady of La Leche:
I have been told, and I have noticed, these few days that I have been with you, the affection and devotion that you have for the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Mother. I thank God because you are a people who have known how to fulfill what we have just heard in the Gospel and will have accepted with all its consequences the gift that Christ from the Cross, made through St. John to all men and women: “Behold, your Mother.” To accept such a great gift makes the people greater.
Bishop Felipe Estévez of St. Augustine described the image of Our Lady of La Leche: “It is kind of a Nativity of the Lord, because it is the child, recently born, in the hands of Mary.” He said, “The image is Mary embracing the child— Emmanuel— and nursing him in his vulnerability… Her eyes are gazing on him, almost an invitation to us to always have our gaze on Jesus.”
Of the significance of this particular devotion, Bishop Estévez explained, “To look at this devotion, and to nurture this devotion, is to affirm the dignity of the human person, the protection of human life, the welcoming of the child, [and] the dignity of the woman,” all values that, according to the bishop, “our culture is in desperate need of.”
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