Divine Pastor of Souls

Patrona de Lara · Santa Rosa de Barquisimeto (Venezuela)

Every January 14, the Divine Pastor leaves her sanctuary from Santa Rosa to Barquisimeto in one of the world's most massive Marian processions, faithful to a promise born from the cholera epidemic of 1856.

Origin and history

The title of the Divine Pastora of the Souls was born in Seville in the early 18th century, linked to the cappuccino fray Isidoro of Seville. The Larense tradition states that by 1740, by a sending error, an image of the Divine Pastor came to Santa Rosa instead of the Immaculate one requested; by ordering it back, the drawer was impossible to move, which was interpreted as the will of the Virgin to stay in Santa Rosa. The image, to dress, dates to 1735-1736.

In 1856, in the face of a serious cholera epidemic, Father José Macario Yépez entrusted the city to the Divine Pastora and asked to be his last victim; after the epidemic, the procession of January 14 was born from Santa Rosa to Barquisimeto, held continuously since then and considered today one of the world's most massive Marian manifestations. She is a patron of the Lara state and was canonically crowned in 1956, in the centenary of the procession.

The details of the "drawer miracle" belong to the pious, undocumented tradition.