The story of the miraculous image of Our Lady of Las Lajas began in 1754, when a village woman named María and her little deaf-mute daughter Rosa were resting near a cave on their walk between two villages. The little girl ran into the cave and began to shout, “Mommy, there is a woman in here with a boy in her arms!”
The mother was terrified, because the locals believed the caves in that area were haunted. But then Maria found Rosa in the cave, kneeling in front of a splendid woman and playing affectionately with a child. Maria fell to her knees, understanding that she was not seeing ghosts, but the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Child Jesus.
Fearful of ridicule, Maria kept quiet about the event. But, frequently, she and Rosa went to the cave to place wild flowers and candles in the cracks of the rocks. Some time later, Rosa became gravely ill and died. The whole village knew she was dead and were preparing her funeral when her mother took her body to the cave to ask Our Lady to restore Rosa to life. And young Rosa awoke in perfect health.
Their friends and neighbors were overwhelmed with awe and went to the cave themselves. That was when the miraculous image on the wall of the grotto was discovered. It had not been there before. In it Mary appears as a Latin American. (The crowns were added later.) She is giving a rosary to St. Dominic, while the child Jesus is giving the Franciscan cord to St. Francis. These two orders, the Franciscans and the Dominicans, are the founders of the two Orders that first evangelized Colombia, South America.
Geologists have drilled several feet into the stone, taking core samples from several spots in the image. What they discovered is amazing. The colors of the image penetrate deep into the rock! There are no pigments or brush strokes on the surface of the rock. The colors are the colors of the rock itself. The miraculous image can still be seen today, behind the main altar of the beautiful church that was literally built around it. Because the image is in a cave on a mountain side, the church had to be built over the canyon on giant pillars.
polination.blog 
Our Lady of Las Lajas
Reminds me of: “Who painted it?” -H. Clinton before Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Geologists have drilled several feet into the stone, taking core samples from several spots in the image.
“Oh ye of little faith.” Look!! It’s a miraculous image of Jesus on this shroud. Let’s take pieces of it for science! Look!! A miraculous image of Las Lejas! Let’s drill holes in it for science! Other generations of believers might’ve strung you up for such desecration.
I’m as scientifically interested as anyone in the facts thus obtained, especially those amazing shroud investigations, but sometimes human science seems like pulling a butterfly apart to see what makes it tick — then wondering why the butterfly doesn’t fly anymore.
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This is precisely why it took the RCC a really loooong time to give permission for any of these tests. I’m thinking that with advancements in the tests (smaller samples, more info), decline in faith, and rise in science as religion, the hierarchy decided the damage was worth it. Or maybe God just tapped the appropriate Bishop on the shoulder and said, “Just do it.” … sorry, but I can’t help hearing a swoosh right there. ::snicker::
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