Our Lady

Outside the Church of Our Lady of Candelaria in Caracas, thousands of people watched the canonization ceremony in Rome -- about dawn in Venezuela -- on a large screen.

In the middle ground, beneath a hill, stands a village with a basilica dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe—the site, associated with pre-Hispanic deities, where an indigenous peasant saw the Virgin in 1531, when Spain ruled.

Its owners, the Institute of Our Lady of Mercy, a catholic order based in Leeds, said it hoped to find a "charitable" use for the land and buildings.

The school was founded by the order in the 19th Century before being entered into a 99-year lease to a charity run by its governors, Our Lady's Abingdon Trustees Ltd, in 2007.

The Institute of Our Lady of Mercy said the school's leadership had "recently" asked for a reduction to its lease arrangement to safeguard the school's future.