Editing Fast Fridays: 30 Minutes for God (section)

=== Our Lady of Guadalupe, Extremadura ===
The Monastery of Santa Maria de Guadalupe in Spain holds a "Black Madonna" statue said to have been carved by Saint Luke himself. The statue was found in the early 1300s buried along the Guadalupe River in Extremadura, in the interior of Spain. A herder told priests that the Virgin Mary appeared to him when he was looking for a missing animal, and the priests built a shrine at the spot where the statue was found. Construction on the monastery commenced soon after. 

There, Isabella and Ferdinand signed the authorization for Columbus' first voyage of 1492. The shrine became associated with explorers and voyagers, such as Hernan Cortès, who went on pilgrimages there before their ventures. Columbus' boats, ''La Niña'', ''Pinta'' and ''Santa Maria'', when put as a phrase mean "Little Girl Painted Saint Mary," which many Catholics see as a premonition of the events at Guadalupe.