Case file · Apparition / miracle
The Lord of Chalma in the cave
Tradition says that in 1539 Augustinian friars found a crucifix had replaced the idol of Oztoteotl in a cave at Chalma; the shrine became Mexico's second pilgrimage site after Guadalupe.
1539 CE · 18.93, -99.43 · status: legend
The account
Pilgrims still dance and bathe in the spring beneath an ahuehuete tree. Historians see the story as one of many in which a Christian image took over an Indigenous holy place.