Our Lady of Perpetual Help

Güímar (Tenerife) · the oldest Romeria in the Canary Islands

In the village of El Socorro, next to the beach of Chimisay where the tradition places the appearance of the Virgin to the guanches, is celebrated the one that is held by the oldest Romeria of Tenerife and the Canary Islands.

Origin and history

The local tradition links this advocation to the appearance of the Virgin on the beach of Chimisay to the Guanches, an episode that the popular memory relates to the origin of the Virgin of Candelaria, patron of the Canary Islands; the Romeria commemorates each year that appearance. The primitive hermitage would have been built in the first third of the 16th century, according to Fray Alonso de Espinosa.

The current hermitage, in the village of El Socorro, is declared Good of Cultural Interest for its architectural value and for the significance of its rosemary. The devotion is strongly linked to the Romeria del Socorro, considered by the sources the oldest of Tenerife and the Canary Islands, of a popular and festive character, that every September 7 goes down from Güímar to the coast.

Closed canonical name, formal patronage and canonical coronation: not recorded in the sources.