Anecdotes about the Virgin Mary

«Altagracia: el cuadro viajero del naranjo»

Higüey (Dominican Republic) (early 16th century)

In Higüey, to the east of the Dominican Republic, the Basilica--Cathedral of Our Lady of the Altagracia, Protector of the Dominican people, rises. Its image is not a size, but a painting of Spanish-flamenco style, probably painted in Seville between 1500 and 1515, which represents the Birth, with the Child lying down and St. Joseph in the background.

Several traditions are intertwined around their arrival. An account that a rich man's daughter asked her father, on a trip to Santo Domingo, for an image of the Altagracia; the father did not find her, until an old man gave her this picture and disappeared. Another version, widely used in popular catechesis, adds that the picture placed in the house disappeared and appeared hanging from an orange tree, a sign that the Virgin wanted to be honored there. A 17th-century chronicler, Gerónimo de Alcocer, attributed the drawing of the painting to the Trejo brothers, hidalgos of Plasencia present in Higüey around 1508.

The tradition of history should be distinguished. The oranges, so dear in catechesis, do not appear in the primary historical documentation, and should be considered devotional legend. The attribution to the Trejo brothers is based on Alcocer, but is not fully confirmed in the files. On the other hand, the antiquity of the painting is documented, the veneration in Higüey already in the 16th century - a document of 1569 speaks of three miracles - and the thanksgiving of 1692 for the battle of La Limonade, from which the feast of January 21 was born.

The official recognition came when Pius XI proclaimed it Protector of the Dominican Republic in 1922, and on January 21 it is today national holiday with great pilgrimages. The devotion to the Altagracia is traditionally associated with maternal intercession and the Rosary, although Higüey's painting represents a scene of the Nativity.