The Legend of the Unwilling Statue

Charles F. Saunders & Fr. John O’Sullivan

In his book Capistrano Nights, Charles Francis Saunders recorded the memories of Fr. John O’Sullivan, who came to San Juan Capistrano Missions in 1910 and determined to restore the old Mission that had fallen into ruin after the secularization of the Mission by the Mexican government in 1833.

This is a story that he recorded from the people who had kept the living history of the old blessed Mission days, passed down from one generation to another. In this selection he tells how a statue of Our Lady left, but then returned to San Juan Capistrano Mission.

There is a curious tradition of the Mission, Fr. John O’Sullivan told me one day, which may be called the Legend of the Unwilling Statue. I have it recorded here in my notebook. It is short. Let me read it to you.

And so he read:

Many years ago, so the tradition runs, after the secularization and while there was no priest living at San Juan, the ruined mission was under the care of the Fathers at San Gabriel, who came and went at intervals.

The statue began its journey at San Juan Capistrano, above, & made its way to San Gabriel Mission, below, but Our Lady insisted on her return...

Now it occurred on one occasion to the padre at San Gabriel that it might be better if the statue of the Blessed Virgin in the Mission at San Juan were taken to the safer quarters of Mission San Gabriel, and so he sent for it.

There was a deal of sorrow in our little pueblo as the statue was borne away, quite a crowd following it in tears and lamentations.

Now, on the arrival at San Gabriel, a strange thing happened. When they attempted to put the statue in its place, it would not stand up. Do what they might, it continually toppled over. Thereupon the San Gabriel priest, sensible man that he was, told the people to take it back to San Juan Capistrano, for it was evident beyond the shadow of a doubt that the Virgin was unwilling to have her statue removed from the original place.

So back went the statue.

And now, another marvel. Whereas when the people were carrying the statue from San Juan, it was so heavy that the carriers could hardly bear up under the weight of it. But on the return it was so light that the carriers could run with it.

You can Imagine the rejoicing of the San Juan Capistrano people, who turned out en masse when they heard that she was coming back, and went to meet her as far as Los Alisos, nine miles up El Camino Real, as they call San Juan’s main street.

Fr. Sullivan noted: “I found a special interest in this story as a Californian variant of one that the traveler encounters in one form or another throughout Christendom.”

A statue of Our Lady in the side chapel of Mission San Juan Capistrano. Was this the miraculous statue?

Indeed, in the Middle Ages, it was common for a statue to return to – or even refuse to leave – the site where it desired to be venerated. There is truly something marvelous in that Our Lady chose to act this way again in the late 18^th century in the New World.

Why? She wanted to increase and reward the faith of those first Catholic natives of California. It is a sign of the predilection of Heaven for these then-favored people and land.

But what has happened to that miraculous statue? It is not certain. Perhaps in the Mission archives a researcher one day will come upon an entry explaining where the statue went during the sad days of Secularization in the 1830s, when the Missions were dissolved and the churches dismantled, followed by a rapid fall into ruins.

In Mission San Carlos Borromeo, for example, the historic statue of Our Lady of Bethlehem was duly recorded in the anals as being preserved in the home of Doña Maria Ignacia Dutra, while the Christ Child in her arms remained in storage at the Presidio Chapel. However, there seems to be no living or written history of this micraculous statue of Our Lady in San Juan Capistrano.

Today there is a very beautiful statue of the Immaculate Conception on the right hand side altar of Serra Chapel, to the right of the restored retablo in the Sanctuary. Could this be the miraculous image?

There is no answer to this question yet. What happened to the Unwilling Statue is unknown, lost in the mysterious mists of a time that can still seem to stand still in the beautiful California Missions.

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Excerpt from Capistrano Night: Tales of a California Mission
NY:Robert McBride & Co, 1930, Pp 81-82
.Posted April 11, 2026

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