Discovery
There are several different versions of how the statue that is the Virgin of Suyapa was discovered. The version that has become standard is recounted below.
Many Hondurans believe the statue was miraculously discovered in late-January or early-February 1747 by a labourer, Alejandro Colindres. Colindres and an 8 year old boy had been sent by Colindres's mother to clear some corn fields on Piligüin mountain, northeast of Tegucigalpa. On the way back, they were overtaken by nightfall and decided to sleep outside. Colindres was awakened by a sharp pain in the side, and discovered that he was sleeping on something. Later versions of the story claim that without looking at it, Colindres threw it as far away as he could, only to find it underneath him as he lay down again. This detail is not present in early versions of the story. The next morning Colindres discovers that he's been sleeping on the tiny statue of a virgin which he took home with him and set up in his mother's house on the family altar. For the next 20 years it remained on the family's altar in their house. It was not until 1768 that the statue was credited with its first recognized miracle and began to attract public attention. By 1777, a chapel was constructed for the statue.
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Famous quotes containing the word discovery:
“We early arrive at the great discovery that there is one mind common to all individual men: that what is individual is less than what is universal ... that error, vice and disease have their seat in the superficial or individual nature.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The discovery of Pennsylvania’s coal and iron was the deathblow to Allaire. The works were moved to Pennsylvania so hurriedly that for years pianos and the larger pieces of furniture stood in the deserted houses.”
—For the State of New Jersey, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“The new supplants the old. Yet men’s minds are stuffed with outworn bunk. Educating the young in the latest findings of authorities and scholars in the social sciences is important. It is equally important to devise ways and means for aiding the middle-aged and old to reexamine hang-over unscientific doctrines and ideas in the light of recent discovery and research.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)