Our Lady of Miracles

Patrona de El Puerto de Santa María (Cadiz)

Santa María del Puerto, Our Lady of the Miracles, is patron of El Puerto de Santa María and has been on the shield of the city since ancient times. It was the first Marian image canonically crowned in the province of Cadiz.

Origin and history

The image is a sculpture of the 13th century. It was first venerated in the Castle of San Marcos - an ancient mosque converted into a temple after the conquest - and, in the mid-14th century, under Sancho IV, it began to raise for it the Prioral Major Church, now basilica. The tradition, taken up in the Cantiga 368 of Alfonso X, refers that the Virgin, under the title of Santa Maria del Puerto, appeared to the king and worked miracles, a fact that gave name to the city.

Patron and head of the city, was crowned canonically on 8 September 1916 by Benedict XV's brief - the first canonical coronation of the province of Cadiz. The sanctuary was declared diocesan sanctuary in 2013 and minor basilica in 2015.