Our Lady of the Pilar of Zaragoza, venerated in the historic chapel of the Pilar of Antigua Guatemala; Hispanic devotion with its own colonial hermitage and traditional procession. October 12th party. Data to reinvestigate.

Marian devotion of Antigua Guatemala (Sacatepéquez)

La devoción a Our Lady of the Pillar has its origin in the Hispanic tradition of Zaragoza: according to the tradition more widely, the Virgin Mary appeared to the Apostle James in the year 40, on a pillar or column, and asked him to build a temple there in his honor. This narrative belongs to the Pious tradition; the oldest historical documentation we have on the Pilarist cult is very later and is linked to the medieval development of the Zaragozana church and its own liturgy.

Main data

Origin and history

La devoción a Our Lady of the Pillar has its origin in the Hispanic tradition of Zaragoza: according to the tradition more widely, the Virgin Mary appeared to the Apostle James in the year 40, on a pillar or column, and asked him to build a temple there in his honor. This narrative belongs to the Pious tradition; the oldest historical documentation we have on the Pilarist cult is very later and is linked to the medieval development of the Zaragozana church and its own liturgy.

En La Antigua Guatemala, the pilarist invocation was rooted in colonial times with a own hermitage dedicated to Our Lady of the Pilar, an expression of the Hispanic devotion transferred to American lands. The information provided in available sources confirms the existence of this hermitage and its traditional celebration, but is not known here a documented chronology sufficient to secure its original foundation, canonical erection or the exact dates of its first restorations.

The image and the sanctuary

The image venerated in the hermitage of Antigua Guatemala corresponds to Our Lady of the Pillar, Marian advocation iconographically associated to Mary in relation to a pillar o column, in continuity with the zaragozana tradition. However, in the sources consulted for this sheet no con seguridad the precise material description of the local image - if it is size, clothing, polychrome or measurements - and it is therefore appropriate not to attribute unverified features to it.

The sanctuary is the Hermitage of Our Lady of the Pilarin La Antigua Guatemala, Sacatepéquez. The available sources present it as a ermita colonial with traditional veneration and own procession; it is not recorded in the revised sources that have a range of minor basilica, National sanctuary o diocesan sanctuary.

Sponsorship and coronation

In the revised material no consta an officially documented patronage of this image about the city, municipality or diocese of Antigua Guatemala. Devotion may have local and traditional relevance, but not enough support was found to affirm a concrete canonical patronage.

Neither contains a documented canonical coronation of this advocation in Antigua Guatemala with date, pontiff or delegate that can be safely identified in the sources consulted.

Party and devotion

La main party of Our Lady of the Pilar is celebrated the October 12, a date universally associated with this advocation and confirmed also for the general pilarist tradition. In Antigua Guatemala, devotion is expressed in the hermitage colonial propia y en una traditional procession, features that show a popular religiosity established and of clear Hispanic taste.

There are no reliable data on afluencia, number of pilgrims or statistics of participation. It does, by the very nature of the pilarist advocation, contain its connection to solemn celebrations of the Hispanic world and to a Marian devotion of strong popular roots.

Link to the Rosary

There is no exclusive or unique historical relationship of this local advocation with a specific rosarian fellowship in the revised sources. However, like all traditional Marian devotion, the image of the Pilar is naturally integrated into the spirituality of the Rosarybecause the Rosary contemplates the mysteries of Christ with Mary and accompanies the Marian asvocations that lead to meditation, praise and trusting supplication.