Our Lady of Chiquinquirá of Adregue, patron of Adregue

District Patrona Torres

The advocation venerated in Adregue is Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquirá of Adregue, also called in some materials Virgin of Chiquinquirá of Adregue o del Rosario Chiquinquirá de Adregue. The local tradition presents it as an image introduced in colonial times by missionaries and as one of the oldest Marian expressions in the Lara region; a press release from the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference places it as the patron of the diocese of Carora and underlines its devotional roots in the municipalities Torres and Urdaneta.

Main data

Origin and history

The advocation venerated in Adregue is Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquirá of Adregue, also called in some materials Virgin of Chiquinquirá of Adregue o del Rosario Chiquinquirá de Adregue. The local tradition presents it as an image introduced in colonial times by missionaries and as one of the oldest Marian expressions in the Lara region; a press release from the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference places it as the patron of the diocese of Carora and underlines its devotional roots in the municipalities Torres and Urdaneta.

As for the documented history, a review published by a local media state that Adregue was founded on 1616 por el presbítero Francisco de la Hoz Berrio and that the Chiquinquireña devotion there is the oldest in Venezuela, with celebrations that have gathered pilgrims since the 17th century. On the concrete miraculous origin of the image, the data available for this advocation of Adregue do not allow for a safe distinction between traditional account and historical documentation; by rigour, that point no consta in the sources consulted.

The image and the sanctuary

The sources consulted speak of a "sacred canvas" o “imagen” of Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquirá of Adregue, which suggests the belonging to the iconographic type of the Virgen de Chiquinquirá, traditionally associated in Latin America with a venerated canvas, although for Adregue there is no complete technical description of specific iconographic material, dimensions or features in the revised sources. There is also no safety in these sources of a detailed museum or devotional image that allows to specify restoration, authorship or artistic chronology.

The cult focuses on its shrine or church of Adregue, referred to by the local press as the "beautiful church of Adregue" and as the place to which the canvas returns after its pastoral tours. Not included in the sources consulted minor basilica, National sanctuary o diocesan sanctuary with that specific legal title; it does, however, have a local pilgrimage center very important and a reference of Marian devotion in the Tocuyo River Valley.

Sponsorship and coronation

The advocation consists as official patron of the diocese of Carora according to Venezuelan Catholic press, and also as patron of the Torres District in a historical review published in local media. For the town of Adregue, devotion is also identity and strongly linked to the parish community and its pilgrimages.

On the canonical coronation, a secondary source indicates that the 2 October 1966 el Cardinal Quintero canonically crowned the image by mandate of the Pope Pablo VI, and that same day she was proclaimed patron of the Torres District. However, by not having a convergent confirmation of an institutional source of the sanctuary or of the diocese in the available results here, it is most prudent to state that the coronation documented in that reference, but this sheet should be read with caution until it is directly verified in primara ecclesial documentation.

Party and devotion

La main party is held around the 18 November according to the identification of this advocation with the Chiquinquirá of Adregue, a date that coincides with the Marian memory linked to the devotion of Chiquinquirá Venezuela. Other local sources also mention celebrations of the first week of October and a "jubilee" or processional return from the canvas to the sanctuary around that date, suggesting a wider festive cycle than the main solemnity of November.

Devotion is expressed in pilgrimages, pastoral visits of the image to nearby parishes and a march or procession known as "the 11 kilometers of faith" o “Marcha de la Fe”in which the canvas returns to its sanctuary from Carora. The journalistic and parish sources highlight the mass participation and regional character of the cult, with faithful coming from different parts of the country; they do not, on the other hand, record reliable official figures of influx into the results consulted.

Link to the Rosary

The link with the Rosary is already present in the official name of the advocation: Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquirá of Adregue. This name places it within the Marian tradition of Rosario de Chiquinquirá, a title that unites the memory of the Virgin with rosarian spirituality and with the history of chiquinquireña devotion in the Hispanic world.

In the sources consulted there is no specific explanation of the relationship of Adregue with a brotherhood of the Rosary or with a particular devotional practice of this advocation; therefore, that detail no consta. However, devotional logic is clear: the Rosary accompanies this advocation as a contemplative prayer that leads Christ with Mary, and as a classic form of popular piety around the chiquinqureña images venerated in Venezuela and Colombia.