Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre — History of the miraculous image

El Cobre · Santiago de Cuba · Cuba · 17th Century

The Three Johns and Nipe Bay (1612)

In 1612, three men went by boat to the bay of Nipe (eastern Cuba) to collect salt for copper mines of Copper. They were the brothers Juan de Hoyos and Rodrigo de Hoyos, and the boy Juan Moreno, about 10 years old. In the sea they found a floating table; as they approached, they saw that it was an image of the Virgin Mary with the Child Jesus, held by the table. The image had an inscription: "I am the Virgin of Charity".

The three of them retrieved it. What was extraordinary was that, despite the image having been in the water, its clothing and the image itself were completely dry. They took it ashore to the copper mines, where it was placed in a small hermitage.

The image

The image of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre is a small, 36 cm (12-inch) carving on a silver crescent moon. It depicts the Virgin Mary with the Child Jesus in her left arm and a gold cross in her right hand. She is richly dressed in a golden mantle. Her skin is brown, which spiritually connects her to the Cuban people of African, mixed-race, and indigenous heritage.

Patron Saint of Cuba

Pope Benedict XV declared to the Virgin of Charity of the Copper Patron of Cuba the 10 May 1916in response to a request from the veterans of the War of Independence (1895-1898) who attributed their victory to their intercession. The party is September 8.

The Basilica of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre

The Basilica of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, built on a hill 420 meters high, was elevated to a Minor Basilica in 1977. In 1998, Pope John Paul II visited the shrine during his historic trip to Cuba and offered a golden rose to the Virgin. It is the most visited shrine in Cuba, with pilgrims from all over the island flocking there, especially on September 8th.

Cuban devotion: the "Cachita"

In Cuba, the Virgin of Charity is called «la Cachita» with enormous tenderness. She is the mother of all Cubans: white and black, believers and non-believers, exiles and residents. In the Afro-Cuban syncretism of the Santeria, it is identified with Ochún, the orisha of love and fresh water. This double identity - Marian and Orisha - reflects Cuba's cultural complexity.