The story of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe falls in the same period of Spanish history as that of Covadonga. When Don Rodrigo, the leader of the Visigoths, was defeated by the Saracens in 711 and his people fled to the mountains, some of the knights on their way to Asturia took with them a statue of the Blessed Virgin. This statue, which had been given to Bishop Leander of Seville by Pope Gregory the Great, was cherished not only by the great churchman Leander and the people of Seville, but it had special significance in that it came from the Pope himself. The armies of the Saracens seemed invincible; nevertheless the defending Christians, heedless of their own lives, fought on during their retreat; but they were very much concerned over such treasures as the image of Our Lady. Faced with the threat of annihilation, they wanted to protect the statue of Our Lady. So they placed the statue in an iron casket and buried it somewhere in a cave of the province of Estremadura, close to the Asturian Mountains, in the northern part of Spain.

Those who carried the image to safety died in battle and throughout the centuries no one was aware that an image of the Madonna, cherished by a great Pope and a great Bishop of Seville, was buried somewhere in the soil of Spain. Meanwhile, the Moorish rule established itself on the Iberian Peninsula. Christianity was not oppressed but was subjected to much hardship. Moors, Visigoths, and Hispanic tribes mixed and created a unique cultural pattern under Islamic rule. The forces of Western Christianity, however, were on the move; the cities of Spain were recaptured one by one and the country was liberated. The rule of the Saracens lasted for over four hundred years in Spain.

In this holy Cave can be found the 15th. century statue of the Santina (the Little Holy Mary), and the tombs of don Pelayo and don Alfonso I, the Catholic, both of them kings of Asturias, the latter founder of a monastery dedicated to Holy Mary. 

Two great events that have taken place in the recent history of Covadonga are the visit of the Monarchs of Spain with their son, the Prince heir, don Felipe de Borbon, on 24 September 1980, and the pilgrimage of Pope John Paul II on 20-21 August 1989.