Today Saturday marks the 101th anniversary of the canonical coronation of Our Lady of Altagracia. For the occasion, Catholic faithful gather in a national rally to commemorate this event. The Basilica of Higüey is since yesterday the center of exaltation to the mother and protector of the Dominican people.
The canonical coronation is a pious institutional act, duly expressed in a papal bull, with which a crown is granted to an image or statue of a wide-spread invocation of the Virgin Mary.
In 1922, when the country was intervened by US troops, a community of more than 35,000 people gathered at Puerta del Conde, in the Colonial City, to crown the Virgin of Altagracia.
Then, to the religious fervor of this act, a patriotic reaction was added, because with it our people confirmed to the North Americans the rejection of their military intervention, which came to an end with the Hughes-Peynado pact.
According to what is recorded in writings of the time, it was Monsignor Adolfo Alejandro Nouel, for the occasion Archbishop of Santo Domingo, who personally asked Pope Benedict XV for the canonical coronation of the Virgin.
For that ceremony, the image of the Virgin was transferred from the Basilica of Higüey to Santo Domingo, one of the few occasions in which the painting of Altagracia left its temple.
More than a century later, this traditional celebration finds the Dominican people exhibiting great material and other changes that have been developed over 101 years. In the passing of time, the devotion to the Virgin of Altagracia has continued intact in the imagination of the people and in the religious faith of the Catholic majority of the country.
In the Caribbean we hope that this Marian celebration, which combines the celebration of a historic event with prayers and prayers for the family, for peace and for values, guides Dominicans to build paths of consensus in all aspects and issues that have to do with building a better future marked by well-being and justice.
