Our Lady of the Virtues of La Puebla de Cazalla

Marian devotion

Where is he?

Our Lady of the Virtues is the patron and holder of the parish that bears its name in La Puebla de Cazalla, province of Seville, Andalusia. The City Council identifies this advocation with the patron of the municipality and the Archdiocese of Seville describes the parish and its main altarpiece. The coordinate of this file is that of the town of La Puebla de Cazalla obtained from OpenStreetMap; it is not presented as the exact GPS of the temple, because the archived cartographic consultation did not return an unequivocal geometry of the parish.

Documented history

The heritage page of the Archdiocese of Seville describes the parish of Our Lady of Virtues as a building of a Greek cross floor covered by a large vaulted vault. His recent history was marked by the fire of July 1936, in which the baroque altarpiece disappeared. The same source does not turn this destruction into a miraculous narrative: it presents it as a painful historical episode to which an artistic reconstruction followed.

In 1943 it was decided to perform a new major altarpiece for presbytery. The contract with the ceramist Enrique Orce Marmol was signed on March 13 of that year. The altarpiece was executed in enamelled and polychrome cooked mud, and replaced the lost set. The Archdiocese explains that Orce Marmol, born in 1885 and died in 1952, was a Sevillian artist of extensive production. These data allow you to know the material recovery of the parish without claiming that the original altarpiece was recovered.

The current altarpiece has two bodies and three streets. In the central shrimp he presides over the image of the Virgin of Virtues, the work of the Ayamontine sculptor Antonio León Ortega. The iconographic program is largely dedicated to St. Joseph, the local pattern since 1764: the Holy Family, the Escape to Egypt and the Adoration of the Pastors, together with St. Joseph and the Child, appear. In the upper body are Saint Mark Evangelist, with an image dated 1600, Saint Blas, from the 18th century, and a representation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus made by Castillo Lastrucci.

Tradition

The City Council recognizes Our Lady of Virtues as the patron of the municipality and the head of the parish. The patron party is part of the religious and community calendar of La Puebla de Cazalla, and the municipal sources place its celebration around August 15. The local tradition has also related the advocation to the old castle of Luna; the City Council expresses it as a historical possibility that there was a chapel dedicated to the Virgin, not as a conclusively demonstrated fact.

Devotion is expressed in prayer, in the preservation of the headline image and in the participation of the community in its celebrations. As in other claims with the same title, Our Lady of Virtues does not designate a person other than the Virgin Mary, but a local way of venerating her and asking for her intercession.

Legend

In the institutional sources consulted there is no account of the apparition linked to this image that has been approved by the Church. There is also no particular miracle associated with the 1936 fire or the reconstruction of the altarpiece. The possible chapel of the castle belongs to the area of the heritage hypothesis; it is preserved here as such and not as a certainty about the origin of the advocation.

Ecclesial State

It is a public Catholic cult in the parish of Nuestra Señora de las Virtues and is a municipal consideration of La Puebla de Cazalla. It is therefore recorded as a cult allowed in a pastoral sense, without raising that data to an approval of apparitions or miracles. The sources consulted do not contain a specific pronunciation of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on a supernatural phenomenon related to this advocation.

Anecdotes and stories

The reconstruction of the altarpiece produced a different piece of the missing baroque set. Instead of trying to present the new altarpiece as a copy of the previous one, the Archdiocese highlights its ceramic material, its polychrome and the program dedicated to St. Joseph. The history of the temple thus shows how a community can preserve the memory of an image and at the same time receive a new artistic language.

The central shrimp maintains the apvocation in the visual heart of the parish. Around him, the scenes of the life of St. Joseph and the images of St. Mark, St. Blas and the Sacred Heart of Jesus articulate an artistic catechesis that refers to the Holy Family and the life of the Church. They are documented elements of the altarpiece, not evidence of an extraordinary intervention.

Prayer

Holy Mary, Our Lady of Virtues, Mother of Jesus and patron of La Puebla de Cazalla, intercede for their families and for all who seek to live the Gospel. Help us to truly preserve the memory of our community, to care for their temples and to practice the virtues that lead to Christ. Pray for us and teach us to serve with humility. Amen.

Sources

• Archdiocese of Seville: altarpiece of the parish.
• Town Hall of La Puebla de Cazalla: patron saint Virgen de las Virtudes.
• Town Hall of La Puebla de Cazalla: Luna Castle and memory of the advocation.
• OpenStreetMap: La Puebla de Cazalla.