Our Lady of La Leche (Spanish: Nuestra Señora de La Leche y Buen Parto; "Our Lady of the Milk and Good Delivery") is a Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with a statue of her breastfeeding the infant Jesus Christ.
[1] Our Lady of La Leche is an ancient devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary dating back to the time of the Roman Empire, where Christians depicted the infant Jesus nursing at Mary's breast on the walls of the Roman Catacombs, where they were known to congregate and worship.
The popularity of the devotion grew in Spain, especially in Madrid in the late 16th century and eventually made its way to the New World by means of Spanish settlers.
[2] Notably, a group of Spanish colonists—including free and enslaved Afro-Spaniards—built a shrine to Our Lady of La Leche at Mission Nombre de Dios in St. Augustine, Florida in the early 17th century.
[3][4] The move arose from a call by King Philip II to construct such a shrine in Madrid, following his hearing of the devotion and reports of its results.