The Catholic festival of Señor de los Milagros (Lord of Miracles), a very important part of Peruvian culture, celebrates the miraculous survival of a painting of Christ on a church wall in Lima after a large earthquake in the mid-1600s.

Priests and nuns wear purple robes when fulfilling their duties during the month of October, including marching in the large processions. And civilians who want to show gratitude for a miracle they received often wear purple dresses or shirts each day of October for a number of years. While sitting at the Plaza de Armas we sometimes saw very young children wearing the purple clothing.

Stefani, our guide at the Monasterio de Santa Catalina, told us her story of about being cured of hepatitis as a young girl. After receiving a diagnosis of liver failure and prognosis of near certain death, her parents prayed at church that evening promising that Stefani would wear the purple for five years. Within a week she was healed and released from hospital and fulfilled the promise to wear a purple dress each every day in October for five years.