Infobae.com
In the midst of the devastating fires affecting the Punilla region, a surprising event caught the attention of the community. The flames devastated the Marian Center of the Holy Spirit, located between Ongamira and Quebrada de la Luna, but the image of the Virgin Mary remained intact among the ashes and ruins.
Photographer Ariel Luna, from the InfoCórdoba news agency, spoke with Infobae.com and explained step by step how he was able to capture such an image that went viral. “It was early Monday morning and I was looking for a fire source to go photograph in the middle of the night. And with a colleague we saw that in Ongamira there was more reflection of the fire and we went about 12 kilometers, into the mountains,” he recalled.
As he approached the area of greatest intensity, he saw a group of self-evacuees approaching him and telling him that some cabins and the Marian sanctuary were on fire. “There are no firefighters or anyone who can put it out,” the locals warned Luna desperately as he watched the fire advance. And that is where they went.
“We let the front of the fire pass and we found a structure on fire. The visual impact generated by that burning place was very strong, we saw how it destroyed all the wood on the walls and only a few burning sticks remained,” he recalled.
After about seven minutes, he began taking photos of the place, still without seeing the statue that went viral. “It was very difficult, because of the smoke and ashes it was difficult to see and focus in the distance, so I worked inside the fire, without large photography lenses, but short ones, in the foreground,” he added.
And, among the sparks, the unexpected happened, something that would later take on — due to the impact of his images — an almost divine character. “I began to glimpse a white figure in the smoke, but it was impossible to get close because of the fire,” he said. And then “the miracle” happened: a sudden change in the wind helped him get closer to what he recognized as a statue of the Virgin Mary. “There was nothing left of the sanctuary, only her, when I went to take the photo, I saw her totally white, as if she had not been there before and had been recently deposited,” he revealed.
What surprised this seasoned reporter, who already has experience in photographing forest fires, the most was that the plaster figure had no soot stains, nor was it even blackened, unlike another holy image that had recently been found in Los Cocos. “That one had turned brown, here it is just like that, so for believers it was shocking,” Luna commented, adding that the virgin was not displaced from the place. And he seeks to get closer again. “I am going to try to enter that area today, if the fire allows me.”
Luna confesses to being a believer (“although I have not been to mass for 15 years”) and stressed that “we have never had a repercussion of this nature, the fervent took it in an unusual way, no coverage of this fire had such a media magnitude, the photo that is going around everywhere,” he explained about the furor on the networks that the image of his authorship aroused.
When asked if he was able to approach the [image of] Virgin and touch [it] to try to understand why the figure was not harmed, he replied: “My companion told me that, ‘touch it’, it was boiling, but it had absolutely no damage.” And he added how the surprising divine encounter was: “First I saw her dark silhouette, among the flames, and I took several photos, and then I did it with flash and I saw her like this, she was not even brown: the live fire had just passed, it had destroyed everything.”
He had already been there from the first moments of the voracious fire, photographing what was happening in different towns in Córdoba. And he was able to photograph the “minute zero”, when the flames, which came from Dolores, crossed the border crossing with Capilla del Monte and crossed route 38, which was cut off by the passage of the fire.
As he took the photos, the wooden structures around him continued to burn, the sticks kept falling and his companion warned him to leave the place to avoid being burned. For Luna, having captured this image was not a coincidence. “I found out that there are people who pray to the image and believe that it is a miracle,” revealed the photojournalist.
The local community and those who saw the image on social media expressed their astonishment and interpreted the image as a symbol of hope in the midst of tragedy.
See all photos here.
Quod scripsi, scripsi 
RECEIVED VIA EMAIL
Carlos,
I can’t send pictures, but I have a lovely one of the fire that destroyed my Holy Family (Oratory) Church, around the corner in Parkdale, here. The whole church crumbled, in violent flames, despite firemen’s best efforts; but the statue of the Virgin Mary emerged from the rubble, quite unscathed.
D.W. Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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Carlos,
Oh That is STUNNING! She is beautiful and so purely white as if just made! And the flames came from Dolores – the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Mother, the Dolors!
Thank you ever so much for sending this to me!!
It is truly a miracle – so lovely and beautiful! And most definitely protected the photographer and his aide in the fiery blaze! Prophetic! Allegorical, too! Thank you!
I thought that even though the news is so negative that this article showed how we are privileged to see the whole Church perhaps turning the corner with the gentle but strong hand of the Blessed Mother!
You remain in my prayers and I’ll pray for all in Punilla and Ariel Luna especially. His experience there amidst the flames and with the protection of Our Blessed Mother, and truly discovering Her miraculous statue so pure white “Tower of Ivory” has to have deeply reached his own heart.
God bless him and his inspired companion in the fire. St. Florian pray for them.
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The image of the Virgin Mary that remained intact after the fire destroyed a church in Córdoba
Fires are ravaging everything in different parts of the province of Córdoba, and the town of Punilla is one of the most affected places, which is why it was declared a disaster zone. In the last few hours, the flames reached a sanctuary set up at the epicenter of the fire, but mysteriously the Virgin of the place did not suffer even a small mark.
The event took place at the Marian Center of the Holy Spirit, located between Ongamira and Quebrada de la Luna. Everything around it was reduced to ruins and ashes, but the statue remained intact. Photographer Ariel Luna, who was recording the disaster, was the one who captured the shocking image.
“We were looking for fire and we found this. An orange tide appeared and we thought it was a house, but then we saw that it was a sanctuary. I went in to take photos in the middle of all the structures on fire, I turned around and saw the Virgin completely white,” the photographer said in conversation with El Doce de Córdoba.
The scene was impressive, but the Virgin remained there without any trace of the fire: “While I was taking the photos, the sticks kept falling. My companion told me to get out because I was going to burn, so I threw a couple more and left,” he recalled, totally surprised by the situation he witnessed.
What caught his attention the most was the immaculate state of the statuette: “It didn’t have a single mark, it wasn’t scorched, nothing. They told me it didn’t burn because it’s made of plaster, but it’s incredible. It was a tide of fire that consumed everything in 10 seconds,” he revealed.
Despite having received a possible logical explanation as to why the figure survived the flames, Luna is convinced that it was something exceptional. “I think it’s not a coincidence that I took that photo in the middle of all this disaster. I found out that there are people who pray to the image and believe that it’s a miracle,” concluded Ariel Luna.
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A few observations that may escape those who do not read Spanish.
The fire came from a town called “Dolores” (meaning “sorrows”) and through “Capilla del Monte” (meaning “Chapel of the Mount [hill or wilderness]).
This event may be prophetic. It could be interpreted that the fire of persecution will engulf the Church and Our Mother of Sorrows will be in the midst of us to help us cope with the coming troubles.
Just a simple guess. Pray.
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