Anecdotes about the Virgin Mary

"The Three Juans and the Floating Table"

Bahia de Nipe (Cuba) (1612-1613)

Around 1612 or the beginning of 1613, three men went out in canoe to seek salt from the Bay of Nipe in eastern Cuba: two Indian brothers, John and Rodrigo de Hoyos, and a young black slave, Juan Moreno. Cuban devotion reminds them with affection as "the three Juans."

On the waters they saw far away "a white thing" that they first took for a bird or for some branches. As they approached, they discovered that it was the image of the Blessed Virgin with the Child Jesus in their arms, on a small wooden board. On the tablet there were large letters that Rodrigo de Hoyos read.

The most admirable thing, they said, was that the image and their dresses were completely dry, even though they came floating over the water. The same size is the one that is now venerated in the Cobre Sanctuary, near Santiago de Cuba, known tenderly as "Cachita" and proclaimed patron of the island.

El relato más fiable procede del propio Juan Moreno, recogido en 1687 cuando tenía ochenta y cinco años, unos setenta después del hallazgo. Es interesante que en su testimonio habla de «la mar calma» y no menciona ninguna tormenta: la famosa tempestad pertenece a una variante posterior de la tradición. Lo que él sí afirma con claridad es el letrero con el nombre de la Virgen y el prodigio de la imagen seca.