Havana Cuba. — On the eve of another anniversary of the sanctuary erected in El Cobre —inaugurated on September 8, 1927—, hundreds of people came to pay homage to the Patron Saint of Cuba in its Minor Basilica, located on Calle Salud between Manrique and Campanario, in the municipality of Centro Habana.
For days, a non-massive, but constant, attendance of the faithful has been seen at masses and other times. The possible reasons why there is not the usual mass of other years may be the great difficulties with public transport and the queues to buy food.
People pray silently; they ask the virgin to solve personal and health problems; others pray for the freedom of their imprisoned relatives; for those who leave the country illegally, by sea or across borders, so that they can reach their destination; so that everything improves in Cuba and there is no need to emigrate.
Devotees expect miracles from the virgin; they are sure that their requests will be answered; they trust more in the power of the saint than in the promises of the leaders of the government and the State.
People with physical limitations ask for alms at the door of the temple, located about 100 meters from the expensive restaurants of Chinatown.
Around the church there are sellers of candles, flowers and other objects of worship. Also, within the sacred enclosure, prints, crucifixes, rosaries and small images of the Virgin are sold.
The prices of these items test the faith of the devotees, who spare no money to honor Cachita, as she is popularly called. The flowers are between 30 and 100 pesos each. The bouquets, at 300 pesos the smallest. White candles at 50, if they are colored they cost more.
The origins of the cult of La Caridad del Cobre date back to the 16th century, when, they say, in the middle of a storm, the Indians Juan and Rodrigo de Hoyos and the black Juan Moreno found the image of the saint in the Nipe Bay, which It floated on the sea on a board that had the inscription: “I am the Virgin of Charity”.
In the Hato de Bajaragua, where the copper mines of Santiago del Prado were located, the local residents built the first hermitage. The great basilica that exists today would be built on the same site.
The mambises, in the wars of independence, were devoted to the saint and invoked her before going into combat. For this reason, in 1915, the veterans requested in a letter to Pope Benedict XV the proclamation of Caridad del Cobre, the so-called Virgin Mambisa, as Patron Saint of Cuba, which was granted by the Supreme Pontiff.
There is no other saint or Catholic saint in Cuba with so many official, religious and folkloric attributes or who has received more tributes.
Something unusual happened in the year 2011, when after several decades of state atheism, the communist regime gave its approval so that the image of La Caridad del Cobre, on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of its appearance, was removed from its sanctuary in Santiago of Cuba and paraded throughout the national territory, in a route close to 30,000 kilometers.
Another unusual fact in communist Cuba is that, so far this century, four books on the Virgin have been published by state publishers. These are: The Virgin of Caridad del Cobre, History and Ethnography, by Fernando Ortiz; another by Olga Portuondo Zúniga, with almost the same title; The Cuban Virgin in Nipe and Bajaragua, by Ángel Peña, Roberto Valcárcel and Miguel Ángel Urbina; and Sin Conceived Sin: La Caridad del Cobre in Cuban visual artsby Dennys Castellanos Mogena and Sergio L. Fontanella Monterrey.
The visit to our country by Pope John Paul II led to the coronation and blessing of the Virgin in the mass celebrated on January 24, 1998, in Santiago de Cuba.
In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI awarded her the title of The Golden Rose of Christianity for the 400th anniversary of the apparition of the Virgin in Cuba, and Pope Francis, in September 2015, on the centenary of her consecration, decreed the Exceptional Holy Year of Mercy.
Santeria welcomes Caridad del Cobre in its pantheon of orishas as Ochún, the goddess of love, money and fresh water.
OPINION ARTICLE
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