Our Lady of the Rosary of San Nicolás

Mary Prays
May 13
6 min read

San Nicolás de los Arroyos, Argentina · September 25, 1983 – February 11, 1990

TLDR

She appeared to an ordinary wife and grandmother with only four years of schooling and gave over eighteen hundred messages, all granted an imprimatur. A forgotten life-sized statue of Our Lady, blessed by Pope Leo XIII in 1884 and stored in a bell tower for a century, was found when Our Lady appeared beside it and said, "They have forgotten me, but I have emerged." Jesus himself spoke through the visionary, saying, "The Ark is My Mother. He who rejects My Mother rejects Me."

Year	1983-90
Location	San Nicolás, Argentina
Visionary	Gladys Quiroga de Motta
Apparitions	1,800+ messages
Church Status	Fully approved (2016)
Key Message	"They have forgotten me, but I have emerged." Forgotten statue found in bell tower. Jesus: "The Ark is My Mother."

The World She Entered

In the early 1980s, Argentina was emerging from one of the darkest chapters in its history.

The military dictatorship known as the Dirty War had ended just months before the apparitions began. Thousands had been killed or "disappeared." The economy was in collapse. The Falklands War with Britain had ended in defeat and humiliation. The people were battered, grieving, and searching for something to hold onto.

San Nicolás de los Arroyos was an industrial city about a hundred miles northwest of Buenos Aires, a working-class place built around steel factories and the Paraná River. In the cathedral stood a life-sized statue of Our Lady of the Rosary that had been blessed by Pope Leo XIII in 1884. Over the century since, the statue had been damaged, and rather than being repaired, it was placed in the bell tower and forgotten.

A forgotten statue. A forgotten people. And a Mother who does not forget.

To Whom She Appeared

Gladys Herminia Quiroga de Motta was forty-six years old, a wife, a mother of two daughters, and a grandmother. Her husband Ricardo was a crane operator at a steel factory. She had completed only four years of elementary school. She had never written a letter in her life. She wore thick glasses and reading was always difficult. She had no theological training, no biblical knowledge, and no reputation for extraordinary piety.

She was, in every way, an ordinary woman living an ordinary life in a working-class neighborhood. And heaven chose her to receive over eighteen hundred messages from the Blessed Virgin Mary over the course of nearly seven years.

How She Appeared

In early September 1983, something strange began happening in homes across San Nicolás. Rosary beads started glowing. Not in one house, but in many, all across the city. Families who witnessed it responded by doing the only thing that seemed right: they began praying the Rosary together.

On September 25, 1983, Gladys noticed that her own rosary was illuminated, glowing like molten steel. The next day, while kneeling in her bedroom to pray, the Blessed Virgin appeared before her. She was wearing a blue gown and veil, holding the Child Jesus in her arms and a large rosary in her hand. Her figure glowed with light. She smiled at Gladys but said nothing, and then she vanished.

Over the following weeks, Our Lady appeared several more times in silence. Then, on October 13, 1983, the anniversary of the last apparition at Fatima, she spoke for the first time:

"You have been faithful. Do not be afraid. Come to see me. You will walk, hand in my hand, and you will travel a long road."

From that day on, the apparitions came nearly every day. Gladys wrote down every word, filling notebooks with messages that came with a speed and depth that seemed humanly impossible for a woman who had never finished primary school.

What She Said

Our Lady's messages at San Nicolás are among the most abundant in the history of Marian apparitions, over eighteen hundred messages between 1983 and 1990, all approved by the bishop with an official imprimatur. They are also among the most tender and the most urgent, often in the same breath.

On her first spoken visit, she gave Gladys a white rosary and said:

"Receive this Rosary from my hands and keep it forever and ever. You are obedient; I am happy because of it. Rejoice, for God is with you."

When Gladys asked if she wished to be called Our Lady of the Rosary of San Nicolás, she answered:

"So it must be. My wish is to be among you, to cover you with blessings, with peace, with joy, and bring you close to the Lord Our God."

She asked Gladys to find a statue that had been blessed by a Pope and forgotten in a church. When the damaged statue was found in the bell tower of the cathedral, Our Lady appeared beside it and said:

"They have forgotten me, but I have emerged."

She spoke of her love for her children with an intensity that burned through every message:

"Tears burn my eyes when I see such coldness in those that I try to save, because I know that if they do not convert themselves, they will go to death."

"If only they turn their eyes toward the Mother of God, the Mother will make them find God again. If only they penetrate the Mother's Heart will they be able to hear the Lord's voice."

She spoke of the Rosary as the decisive weapon in the spiritual battle:

"The weapon that has the greatest influence on evil is to say the Rosary."

She spoke about what she longed to do for the world:

"I want people to know that I am coming into the world."

"Glorious days await you. You will rejoice in me, my beloved children."

And through Gladys, Jesus himself spoke, delivering sixty-eight messages alongside his Mother's. Among the most striking was this:

"Formerly, the world was saved by the ark of Noah. Today the Ark is My Mother. Through her, souls will be saved, because she will lead them to Me. He who rejects My Mother rejects Me."

"My Mother must be accepted. My Mother must be heard in the totality of her messages."

The Heart of Her Message

Bishop Domingo Salvador Castagna met with Pope John Paul II to discuss the apparitions and ordered the construction of a sanctuary as Our Lady had requested. The cornerstone was laid on the third anniversary of the apparitions, and the sanctuary was consecrated in 1990. Bishop Héctor Cardelli, after twelve years of study following Vatican guidelines, formally declared the apparitions to be of supernatural character and worthy of belief on May 22, 2016. The first eighteen hundred messages received an official imprimatur. Four successive bishops of San Nicolás have supported the apparitions.

Our Lady also asked for a medal to be struck in her image with the words "Mary of the Rosary of San Nicolás" and on the reverse the Holy Trinity with seven stars. She said the stars represent the seven graces her Son would grant to those who wear it.

Every year on May 25, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims travel to San Nicolás, some walking over thirty miles from surrounding cities. The sanctuary on the banks of the Paraná, the one Our Lady told Gladys she wanted, stands where a shaft of light struck the ground on the night Gladys and a small group went to find the place.

The message of San Nicolás is that Our Lady is coming into the world. Not in the past tense, not as a historical memory, but now. She is coming. She is emerging from the bell towers where she has been forgotten, from the dusty corners where her image has been stored, from the silence of hearts that have stopped praying. She is coming because her children need her, and she will not stay hidden.

She told Gladys that her wish is to be among us. Not above us, not watching from a distance. Among us. To cover us with blessings, with peace, with joy. And to bring us close to the Lord Our God.

That is what a Mother does. She comes close. She stays. And she brings you home.

The apparitions began on the anniversary of Fatima and ended on the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. From Fatima to Lourdes. From Portugal to France. From warning to healing. She is weaving all of her apparitions into one unbroken message, and San Nicolás is part of the thread.

Sources and Further Reading

The details of the San Nicolás apparitions are drawn from the recorded messages of Gladys Quiroga de Motta, the canonical investigations conducted by the bishops of San Nicolás, and the formal declaration of Bishop Héctor Cardelli (May 22, 2016) recognizing the apparitions as supernatural in character. Messages from 1983 to 1990 have been granted an imprimatur. All excerpts of Our Lady's words are from the approved messages.