Pope Leo XIV Honors Uruguay’s Patroness With Golden Rose
At the Florida shrine he reconsecrated the nation, asking Mary to keep Uruguay faithful to Christ.
On November 8, 2026, at the close of the Mass he presided at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Thirty-Three in Florida, Uruguay, Pope Leo XIV placed a Golden Rose before the image of the country’s patroness.
In his homily, the Holy Father said: “With this gesture I wish to honor her who is truly the pride of our race, and to make visible the fulfillment of those words she herself spoke: All generations will call me blessed.” He again consecrated Uruguay to Mary, “Captain and Guide of this people,” and entrusted to her protection “this land and all who live in it,” asking God that through her powerful intercession he “break the works of the devil and preserve beloved Uruguay from whatever would draw it away from Christ.” He concluded: “May this Golden Rose, offered as a sign of veneration and filial love, also remind her children that they are called to imitate her: to love Christ as she loved him, and to bring him to others as she did. Amen.”
A Rare Papal Distinction
The Golden Rose is a papal honor traditionally granted to persons, shrines, churches, or cities in recognition of service to the Church or the common good. Since the Second Vatican Council, it has been reserved for only a few of the most renowned Marian shrines. Its roots reach to the Middle Ages: from the twelfth century, on the fourth Sunday of Lent, the pope blessed a rose and carried it in procession from the Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme to the Lateran Palace. Among early recipients, Isabella of Castile received one in 1493 from Innocent VIII; Mary, Queen of Scots, received one in 1555. Paul VI’s first rose, in 1964, went to the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
Patroness of a Nation
The cedar image of Our Lady of the Thirty-Three, about 36 centimeters tall, is the focus of Uruguay’s feast each second Sunday of November — the day on which this Mass fell. Pope John XXIII proclaimed her Patroness of Uruguay in 1961. Brought from the Jesuit Guaraní missions, the image was first kept at the estancia La Calera, later in a chapel at Pintado, and moved in April 1809 to Villa San Fernando in the department of Florida. On June 14, 1825, the “Thirty-Three Orientales” met there for the Congress of Florida, attended a Te Deum, and venerated the image before declaring independence on August 25, placing the new nation under her protection. In 1975 Uruguay declared the image and its church historic monuments, marking 150 years of independence.
During his 1988 apostolic journey, Saint John Paul II asked her to help the Church in Uruguay “work tirelessly to implant the Gospel of the Beatitudes, guarantee of freedom, progress and peace.” Pope Leo XIV’s offering of the Golden Rose and his renewed consecration continue that filial trust in Mary’s maternal care for the Uruguayan people.