Our Lady of Fátima de Las Manchas

Marian devotion of El Paso (La Palma)

Our Lady of Fatima es venerada en la hermitage de Las Manchason the island of La Palma, an emblematic area for its historical eruptions: that of the volcano San Juan (1949), la del Teneguía (1971) y la de Tajogaite / Cumbre Vieja (2021).

Main data

Origin and history

Our Lady of Fatima es venerada en la hermitage de Las Manchason the island of La Palma, an emblematic area for its historical eruptions: that of the volcano San Juan (1949), la del Teneguía (1971) y la de Tajogaite / Cumbre Vieja (2021).

The hermitage of the Virgin of Fatima of Las Manchas became especially known during the erupción de 2021: la lava pasó muy cerca y tanto la prensa como medios religiosos resaltaron que la ermita quedó milagrosamente en pie, sin daños estructurales. Algunos artículos señalaron que la ermita ya había «aguantado» la erupción de 1949 y nuevamente la de 2021, quedando en medio de la zona afectada. Conviene precisar que la difundida tradición oral de una imagen mariana palmera con «las manos quemadas» por haberla acercado a una colada de lava no consta documented in reliable sources and should not be attributed to this image: what is collected is the devotional account of the protection of the hermitage from lava.

The image and the sanctuary

Devotion is concentrated in a monument to the Virgin of Fatimain granite, raised by promise of the parish priest Don Blas Santos Pérez at the exact point where the lava of 1949 was stopped, next to the church of San Nicolás de Bari the payment of Las Manchas (of El Paso jurisdiction). He has been in the area since 1950 and was killed in 1960. Its recent notoriety comes from having been left standing a few meters from the 2021 laundry without damage. The detailed description of the image no consta in the sources consulted.

Sponsorship and coronation

A formal patronage and a documented canonical coronation no constan in the sources consulted.

Party and devotion

As the advocation of Fatima, his liturgical memory is the 13 May; the concrete local celebration of Las Manchas no consta with precision in the sources consulted. The devotion was strongly reinforced by the account of the hermitage that resisted the passage of the lava in 2021, lived by the neighbors as a sign of protection of the Virgin.

Link to the Rosary

The link with the Rosary is typical of the message of Fatima: in 1917, according to the account of the apparitions, the Virgin asked the three pastors insistently for the rezo diario del Rosario for the peace and conversion of sinners. Every advocation of Our Lady of Fatima therefore carries with it this call to the Rosary, which in Las Manchas joins the gratitude of a people who felt protected by the fire.