Virgin of the Paloma

The Virgin of Madrid · patron of the fire department

In the neighborhood of La Latina the Virgin of the Paloma, a canvas of the Soledad rescued from a portal at the end of the 18th century, is venerated; the most chastity of the Madrid devotions, patron of the fire fighters, before which from its beginning the Rosary was prayed every afternoon.

Origin and history

Unlike other Madrid devotions, which are usually stems, the image is a canvas of the Virgin of Soledad, dating from the 17th to 18th centuries. According to tradition, around 1787 a neighbor, Isabel Tintero, found the picture abandoned and placed it on the portal of her house on the street of the Paloma; before it she immediately began to publicly pray the Rosary every afternoon. The devotion grew rapidly: in 1796 the chapel of the Virgin of the Paloma was founded, and in the early 20th century the present temple, in Neomudéjar style, was erected between 1896 and 1912, opened with the presence of Alfonso XIII and Victoria Eugenia.

La Virgen de la Paloma is one of the most popular and castous advocacy in Madrid: in its honor the Festivals of the Paloma are celebrated, with procession through the streets of La Latina every 15 August, solemnity of the Assumption. The Madrid firemen have her as a patron and are the ones who put down the altarpiece canvas for the procession. The link with the Rosary is explicit from the origin of devotion: the sources gather that "at the impulses of this devotion, the Rosary is prayed every night before this holy image, covering the contest much of the street."

Canonical coronation: not found in the sources.