We crossed to the alcove for a closer look. It held a wooden statue of a female figure in a blue robe trimmed with gold, cradling an infant in her arms. The faces of both woman and child had been hacked off—only the crisscrossed scars of deep axe cuts remained. And someone had been at her robe with a knife in an effort to scrape off its gilt trim. From the dents and scuffs on the body of the statue, I guessed that it had been tumbled from its base. But someone had lifted it back into place again. Next to the alcove, a marble plaque on the wall commemorated the visit of Pope John Paul II during the Festival of the Virgin in August of 1993.