The Legend of the Patron Saint of Malaga
Our Lady of Victory
Legend has it that after three and a half months of siege, the troops led by Don Fernando the Catholic were unable to conquer the city of Malaga. The king had a Marian image in his oratory. In a dream, an old man interceded and prayed to the Virgin for the conquest to be achieved. That same day, some religious men sent by Saint Francis of Paula arrived at the royal chambers to ask for permission to found the Order of the Minim Friars in Spain. At the same time, they carried a letter from the founder in which, as a prophecy, he told the king not to lift the siege because in three days the city would fall into his hands. The monarch understood his dream as a divine revelation and recognized in the old man Saint Francis of Paula and therefore that the image of the Virgin that he had in his oratory was responsible for the victory. Three days later, on August 19, 1487, the city was conquered.
The image of Santa María de la Victoria is a sculpture made of polychrome wood, seated on a rock with a Child on her lap. Its authorship is unknown, although there are hypotheses about Pedro Millán and Juan de Figueroa (15th century).
The Patron Saint resides in the monastery of La Victoria in Malaga, which has the uniqueness of being the mother house of the Minim order in Spain. Located in the place where Fernando El Católico had established his camp during the siege of the city of Malaga. On September 8th her feast day is celebrated, concluding with a solemn procession of return to her monastery, after an annual novena that takes place in the Holy Cathedral Basilica of Malaga, for which the Patron Saint is transferred there on the last day of August.
Legend has it again that in the year 1637, an epidemic of carbuncles and droughts took place, covering the population in mourning. A priest begged the bishop to take the Virgin of Victory in procession from her temple to the cathedral as a prayer. The bishop agreed and in one day 1,800 sick people were cured and five days later the epidemic was declared eradicated. Since then, the procession has taken place every year.
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