SW News: The canonical coronation of Our Lady of La Leche, the oldest Marian image in the United States, in the Diocese of St Augustine in Florida, USA, is just hours away. Believers are eagerly awaiting the solemn ceremony that will take place at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Augustine on Sunday, October 10. A canonical coronation is an act by which an image or icon of Christ, the Holy Virgin or St Joseph having great significance and is the focus of popular devotion is crowned on behalf of the Holy Father.
At 2pm local time, Holy Mass will be celebrated by Papal Legate Carlos Osoro Sierra, who will crown the miraculous image of Our Lady nursing the Child Jesus after the homily. The communion rite will be followed by the consecration of the diocese to Jesus through the Blessed Mother. Later, there will be a motorcar procession carrying the sacred image to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Leche.
The shrine is located at the Mission Nombre de Dios in St Augustine and it is the site of the first sanctuary dedicated to the Holy Virgin in the US. The mission itself traces its history to the founding of the city of St Augustine in the 1500s. On September 8, 1565, Spaniard Pedro Menendez de Aviles came there and claimed that site for Spain and earmarked it for a church. It was the first Spanish settlers who brought with them the devotion to Our Lady and in the late 1500s, the first shrine to the Blessed Mother was built there and it was dedicated to Nuestra Senora de la Leche y Buen Parto (Our Lady of the Milk and Happy Delivery).
The historic statue shows a smiling Virgin nursing the  Infant Jesus. The devotion to Our Lady led to mass conversions of Native Americans in the region. The chapel was destroyed in natural calamities more than once and the present structure was built in 1915. It offers refuge to expectant mothers, families and those seeking to fortify their faith.
 The Congregation of Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments in 2012 allowed the shrine to have the feast of Our Lady of La Leche inserted into the liturgical calendar of the Diocese of St Augustine and it is celebrated on October 11. Seven years later, the sanctuary was declared a National Shrine by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.