The Iglesia María Auxiliadora () is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

in Villa Colón,

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

. The church was completed in 1877. The church is dedicated to Mary Help of Christians, a

Marian devotion Marian devotions are external pious practices directed to the person of Mary, mother of Jesus, by members of certain Christian traditions. They are performed in Catholicism, High Church Lutheranism, Anglo-Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Orie ...

deeply held and propagated by Saint

John Bosco John Melchior Bosco, Salesians of Don Bosco, SDB (; ; 16 August 181531 January 1888), popularly known as Don Bosco or Dom Bosco (International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: ), was an Italian Catholic priest, educator and writer. While working in Tu ...

(Don Bosco). The temple was declared a National Votive Sanctuary by Archbishop Mariano Soler, who blessed it personally in 1901. The temple is part of a larger complex dominated by the private school "Colegio Pío IX", operated by the

Salesians of Don Bosco The Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB), formally known as the Society of Saint Francis de Sales (), is a religious congregation of men in the Catholic Church, founded in 1859 by the Italian priest John Bosco to help poor and migrant youth during the ...

since its establishment in the second half of the 19th century. The parish is one of seven in Uruguay dedicated to Mary Help of Christians, including María Auxiliadora in Montevideo's

Parque Rodó Parque Rodó is both a ''barrio'' (neighbourhood or district) of Montevideo, Uruguay and a park which lies mostly outside the limits of the barrio itself and belongs to Punta Carretas. The name "Rodó" has been given in memory of José Enrique Rod� ...

neighbourhood, as well as churches in other municipalities around the country ( Casupá,

Castillos Castillos is a small city in the Rocha Department of southeastern Uruguay. Geography The city is located on the junction of Route 9 with Route 16, about northeast of the city of Rocha. Other settlements in the area include Barrio Torres, ab ...

, General Enrique Martínez, Guichón and Vichadero).

References

External links

1919 establishments in Uruguay Roman Catholic churches completed in 1877 Roman Catholic church buildings in Montevideo Salesian churches in Uruguay 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Uruguay {{uruguay-RC-church-stub