Saint Dominic.- With various events, the day of the Virgin of La Altagracia, protector of the Dominican Republic, will be celebrated with 334 years of religious activity, celebrated every January 21.
On the occasion of the celebration, parishioners from a large part of the country’s provinces travel to La Altagracia every January 21 to visit the basilica and thank it for some personal or family good or for having obtained good results in activities.
official religious holiday
The date of January 21 was declared an official religious holiday by the ecclesiastical power of the Catholic Church, according to a letter from Archbishop Isidoro Rodríguez Lorenzo, who announced in 1692 as spokesperson for the church for the first time the designation of a date as a religious holiday before the ecclesiastical authority.
Although Monsignor Arturo de Meriño, archbishop of Santo Domingo in the period 1880-1882 that the Holy See was asked to grant the Divine Office and Proper Mass for the day of the Virgin of Altagracia, also begging that it be a holy day of obligation on January 21.
But, historians and priests of the Catholic Church mention that it was from May 12, 1502 when the image of the virgin was taken to a parish in the Villa de Salvaleón de Higüey, under the orders of the bishop of Santo Domingo, García Padilla, since at that time the Trejo brothers had arrived in Higüey: Alonso and Antonio, who would have brought the image of the Virgin of Altagracia to the country; These came from Plasencia, a town in the Autonomous Community of Extremadura, Spain.
official religious holiday
Others say that it is in the town of Siruela where the Virgin Mary appeared to a farmer on a tree – hence its name – the highest Grace coming from heaven.
But, the date of January 21 was declared an official religious holiday by the ecclesiastical power of the Catholic Church, according to a letter from Archbishop Isidoro Rodríguez Lorenzo, who announced in 1692 as spokesperson for the church for the first time the designation of a date as a religious holiday before the ecclesiastical authority, approving the holiday on January 21 as good and valid.
The celebration gains greater notoriety from January 21, 1971, when President Joaquín Balaguer inaugurated the construction of the Basilica of San Camaleón de Higüey, through decree 518 where the legislative chambers of deputies and senators were summoned to hold a joint meeting in honor of “Our Lady of Altagracia, protector of the nation.”
