The Church of the Rosary is the historic, cultural, and spiritual heart of Guasave. As early as the late 1500s, the Spanish Jesuits arrived in this area to evangelize the Yoreme Indians. By the early 1600s, they contructed this church. According to legend, the location of the church was chosen by providence and revealed through a very unusual event. The Catholic fathers had commmissioned an elaborate, handcrafted statue of the Madonna and Child, and ordered that it should be delivered to a different mission. But when the team passed through Guasave, the mules refused to continue. The fathers unloaded the statue and rested, and when they attempted to resume the journey, the statue became fixed in its place. No matter how many men they got to help, they could not lift the statue from the ground. The leader of the order saw this as a sign that the Virgin Mother had chosen Guasave as her permanent home. This became the site of the church, the new mission, and the city of Guasave. To this day, the statue resides within the church, still gilded and radiant.
My friend Maria del Pilar (Mappy) met us at the hotel in downtown Guasave. She treated us to a wonderful breakfast and took us on a driving tour of the city. We stopped briefly at the Church of the Rosary and took pictures.
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