Over forty thousand people now attend the annual pilgrimage in the last week of July, which is sponsored by the Oblate Fathers.

During the 1976 earthquake, a portion of the church collapsed but the Oblate Fathers restored the ruin parts following the original design.

Esparza also paid for an orphanage to be built under the care of the Oblate Fathers.

Only 45 feet by 25 feet in size, it was built between 1865 and 1885 as a mission of the Oblate Fathers.

The Oblate Fathers established a mission there and encouraged the native people in the surrounding wilderness to settle there.

He was then taken in by the Oblate Fathers.

By the time the work was given to the Oblate Fathers in 1902, visits to the shrine numbered about 30,000-40,000 per year.

He sold the house in 1956 for $60,000 to the Oblate Fathers of Mary Immaculate.

Now, the Oblate Fathers say the house is too big for them.

But the Oblate Fathers say they would feel better striking a deal with Boston.