The first pilgrims who went to visit it were the boys and girls from the neighbouring villages.

They used to go there in the evening, by preference in couples, as if their pious desires naturally sought satisfaction in darkness and solitude.
They worshipped the saint with a fervent and discreet worship whose mystery they seemed jealously to guard, for they did not like to publish too openly the experiences they felt.

But they were heard to murmur one to another words of love, delight, and rapture with which they mingled the name of Orberosia.

Some would sigh that there they forgot the world; others would say that they came out of the grotto in peace and calm; the young girls among them used to recall to each other the joy with which they had been filled in it.
Such were the marvels that the virgin of Alca performed in the morning of her glorious eternity; they had the sweetness and indefiniteness of the dawn.

Soon the mystery of the grotto spread like a perfume throughout the land; it was a ground of joy and edification for pious souls, and corrupt men endeavoured, though in vain, by falsehood and calumny, to divert the faithful from the springs of grace that flowed from the saint's tomb.