Devotion to Mary in Latin America
"Allow us, O Mary, to take part in your pilgrimage through the countries of Central and South America, where you are so well known and loved from Guadalupe in Mexico, to Aparecida in Brazil, to Caridad del Cobre in Cuba; from Coromoto in Venezuela, to Copacabana in Bolivia, and in many other places...."
"Mary, be a pilgrim with us on the paths of the world...."John Paul II, "Prayer to the Immaculate" in Rome's Piazza di Spagna on December 8, 1993.
Popular piety has woven a chain of tenderness and devotion that connects all Latin America in a constant pilgrimage to the Marian shrines. These great centers of worship have an enormous power of convocation and contain a treasure of faith in the images of Mary which the people venerate with a deep love tied closely to their national identity. The histories and legends that have arisen around these images are born of the sorrows and the hopes of our Latin-American people. This is the reason why the feast and worship that the Church dedicates to them have become the axis of popular evangelization. These devotions provide the faithful with a profound religious experience whose true value has yet to be recognized.
This issue of "Southeast Documentations" tries to be a quick pilgrimage guide with brief pieces of information regarding the principal titles of Mary in Latin America; a sort of small basic manual to become acquainted with the numerous sacred images with which our people express their profound Marian roots. Portraits wonderously painted, discovered or renovated; clay, wood or stone figures; rescued from river bottoms or carved to acknowledge a favor obtained or in remembrance of deliverance from danger; white, dark-skinned, mestizo, mulatto, Indian. These deeply-loved Marian representations are a strong element in belonging to the Catholic faith and in the identity of the emigrants who, far from their native land, find their roots again in the devotion and worship of the patroness of their country and of the image which represents her.
The origins of all these devotions have something in common: their popular character. The discoveries and apparitions always happen among the simple and humble: Indians, mestizos, the poor; people whose hearts are open to God.
- P. Julio Joao Brustolini. Aparecida: Sua Imagen, Seu Santuario. Aparecida 1980.
- Mons. Alberto Aramayo. Breve Historia de la Virgen de Copacabana. Editorial Don Bosco, 1983.
- Fr. Julio Maria Elia. Copacauana-Copacabana. Santuario de Copacabana, Bolivia, 1981.
- José Luis Guerrero. Flor y canto del nacimiento de Mexica, Librería Parroquial de Clavería, Mexico 1990.
- Joan Carroll Cruz. Miraculous Images of Our Lady. Tan Books and Publishers, Inc. Rockford, Illinois 61105, 1993.
- María Eloísa Alvarez del Real. Santuarios de la Virgen María Apariciones y Advocaciones. Editorial América, S.A. Panamá, 1990.
- Alberto Villaverde S.J. Santa María Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre. Editorial Pueblirín, Puerto Rico 1994.
- Mario Vizcaíno Sch.P. La Virgen de la Caridad Patrona de Cuba. Sepi, Miami, 1981.
- Varios. Devoción a María en América Latina. Historias, Apariciones. CELAM
- Dr. Carlos Sono. Historia de la Imagen y del Santuario del Quinche. Imprenta del Clero. Ecuador 1883.
- Mons. Agustin Román. La devoción a la Virgen en el mundo hispano. Miami, 1983.
- Rogelio Zelada-Agustín Román. Las Imágenes de
Jesús y María en Hispanoamérica Instituto de Liturgia
Hispana de los Estados Unidos.