Cardinal Roncalli, later Pope John XXIII, next to the statue of Our Lady of Covadonga during his visit to the Sanctuary in July 1954. For that occasion, he pronounced the famous phrase: "Covadonga is a smile of nature."
Unknown author<span style="display: none;">Unknown author</span>
<cite class="book" style="font-style:normal" id="Reference-Huerga-2005">Huerga, Emiliano de la (2005)    (in Spanish)  <i> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/434122963">Covadonga</a></i>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Le%C3%B3n,_Spain" class="extiw" title="w:en:León, Spain"><span title="municipality in Castile and León, Spain">León</span></a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Spain" class="extiw" title="w:en:Spain"><span title="country in southwestern Europe with territories in Africa">Spain</span></a>:  Everest, pp. 30−31  <small><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Number" class="extiw" title="en:International Standard Book Number">ISBN</a>:  <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-84-241-0498-6" title="Special:BookSources/978-84-241-0498-6">978-84-241-0498-6</a>.  <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_Computer_Library_Center" class="extiw" title="en:Online Computer Library Center">OCLC</a>:   <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/434122963">434122963</a>. </small></cite>