Our Lady of Coromoto

Patroness of Venezuela

Our Lady of Coromoto is the Marian patroness of Venezuela, venerated in Guanare, capital of the state of Portuguesa. Tradition recounts that the Virgin appeared to a chieftain of the Cospes Indians, leaving in his hand a small image engraved on a parchment that measures only a few centimetres. That relic is preserved today in the Minor Basilica National Shrine of Our Lady of Coromoto. Her feast is celebrated on 11 September.

Faits clés

Central message: Mary calls an indigenous people to receive Baptism and heaven, and her mercy reaches even the one who rejects her, until she makes him an apostle among his own people.

Tradition et histoire : une distinction nécessaire

Around Coromoto two levels coexist that it is well not to confuse.

Tradition recounts the apparitions of the Virgin to the chieftain Coromoto and to other Cospes Indians, the parchment with the engraved image that remained in the chieftain’s hand, and the wonders attributed to the relic, such as the candle stub that is said to have burned without being consumed. These are venerable accounts of Venezuelan popular piety which it is well to receive as such and not to present as scientifically proven facts.

The documented and ecclesial history, on the other hand, attests to the growth of the cult, the preservation of the relic in Guanare since the mid-17th century, the successive declarations of patronage and the coronations. Devotion to Coromoto, real and verifiable, rests on that continued cult rather than on the legendary details. That is why the technical studies on the relic are presented here as what they are: conservation analyses, not proofs of faith.

The tradition of the apparitions

The encounter beside the stream (1651)

When Guanare was founded in 1591, the Cospes Indians who inhabited the region fled toward the forest to the north, which made evangelization difficult. Tradition tells that one day in 1651 the chieftain Coromoto and his wife were crossing a current of water when they saw a Lady of extraordinary beauty who said to them in their own language:

Tradition adds that the Virgin appeared also to other Indians and to their children, when they went to the stream to fetch water.

The catechesis and the second apparition (1652)

A Spaniard named Juan Sánchez, having learned of the event, gathered the tribe in a place between the rivers Guanaguanare and Tucupido, distributed land to them and began their catechization. Several of the natives received Baptism, but not Coromoto, who longed for the freedom of the forest and was preparing his escape. Tradition tells that on Saturday 8 September 1652, while his companions were praying, the chieftain went off angrily to his hut; there the Beautiful Lady appeared to him again. Coromoto, enraged, shot an arrow at her and tried to push her away, but she vanished, leaving in his hand a small parchment with her image engraved on it.

The relic and the conversion of the chieftain

The parchment was gathered up by Juan Sánchez and his companions and, after the first events attributed to it, was taken to the church of Guanare in 1654, where it remained in a reliquary until 1987. According to tradition, the chieftain Coromoto, who had fled again to the forest, was bitten by a venomous snake; then he asked for Baptism, received it and became an apostle among the natives, begging them not to part from the missionary, before he died. The Cospes afterwards formed a fervent community, accompanied during its first years by the Capuchin friar Friar José de Nájera.

Patronage and coronation

In 1807 the priest José Vicente de Unda completed the building of the church of Guanare. In 1942 the Venezuelan episcopate proclaimed Our Lady of Coromoto official patroness of Venezuela, and in 1944 Pope Pius XII confirmed it and declared her Heavenly and Principal Patroness of Venezuela. On 14 May 1949 the church of Guanare was raised to a minor basilica by the same Pius XII.

Three hundred years after the apparition, on 11 September 1952, the sacred image was crowned by Cardinal Manuel Arteaga Betancourt. Later the National Votive Temple was raised on the site of the last apparition, elevated to a shrine in January 1996 and inaugurated in February by Saint John Paul II during his visit to the country; Pope Benedict XVI raised it to a minor basilica in 2007. Since 19 November 2011, Coromoto is also Principal Patroness of the archdiocese of Caracas.

Studies on the relic

Between 9 and 15 March 2009, with the approval of the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference, the relic underwent a conservation treatment directed by a team of restorers. The process, carried out in a laboratory of the National Shrine of Guanare, made it possible to observe in detail the image engraved on the parchment.

These works were, by their nature, a labour of conservation and study of the material support of the relic. The extraordinary claims that were once spread on the basis of that examination belong to the realm of devotional appraisal and do not, in themselves, constitute a doctrinal pronouncement of the Church.

Prayer of consecration to Coromoto

With this prayer Venezuela was consecrated to its patroness by Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino on 26 June 2011. We gather a fragment:

The spiritual message of Coromoto

Devotion to Our Lady of Coromoto still speaks to us today with simplicity:

💧 Mary calls to Baptism. Her first message asks for the water that opens the way to heaven.
🕊️ Mercy reaches the one who resists. Coromoto rejected her, and even so he ended up converted into an apostle of his own people.
🇻🇪 Mary is Mother of an entire nation. Venezuela acknowledges her as its patroness and guide.
✝️ Mary always leads to her Son. «The Virgin of the plains» teaches us to carry Christ in our heart.

Prayer to Our Lady of Coromoto

A sober Marian prayer, gathered in our section of Prières mariales.