The Virgin of Charity (La Virgen de la Caridad) is a miraculous statue of the Virgin Mary in the mining town of El Cobre, outside Santiago in southwest Cuba. Her shrine is the most important religious site on the entire island.
A focus of intese popular devotion—not just for Catholics but also for followers of Santería and even those who aren't otherwise religious—the beloved Virgin of Charity was declared the patron saint of Cuba by the pope in 1916.
The town of El Cobre was founded in 1550 as a Spanish copper mine, worked by slaves and Indians. One day in 1608, two Indians and a slave boy were gathering salt on the coast near El Cobre when they saw something floating in the water. It was a small statue of the Virgin Mary, carrying the Christ child and a gold cross. She floated on a board bearing the inscription, Yo soy la Virgen de la Caridad, "I am the Virgin of Charity."
At the time, the church in El Cobre was dedicated to Santiago, St. James, the powerful patron of the Spanish conquest. So the statue of the Virgin was placed in a thatched hut instead of in the church. But on three successive nights, the statue disappeared from the hut and was found on top of the hill above El Cobre.
The Virgin of Charity resided in several small shrines until 1630, when the copper mine was closed and the slaves were freed. She then took St. James' place above the high altar in the church, a symbol of the triumph of the people over the Spanish conquerers.
Since then, the Virgin has continued to assist her people and has been credited with countless miracles. In 1731, when an attempt was made to reintroduce slavery, she became a symbol of emancipation for one of Cuba's largest slave insurrections. In the end, the slaves were declared free. This spread devotion to Our Lady of Charity even further.
In 1916, the pope visited the shrine of the Virgin of Charity and declared her the patron saint of Cuba. El Cobre Basilica was built to house her in 1927. In 1998, Pope John Paul II crowned her statue during his historic visit to communist Cuba.
The Virgin has collected many votive offerings from her grateful worshippers over the years. In the 1950s, Ernest Hemingway gave the Virgin the Nobel Prize for Literature he won after writing The Old Man and the Sea in Havana. The mother of Fidel and Raul Castro left a small golden guerrilla fighter at the feet of the Virgin as her sons battled the government of dictator Fulgencio Batista ahead of the Cuban Revolution (and they have lived into old age).
Today, the Virgin of Charity in El Cobre continues to receive streams of visitors and stacks of votive gifts. Common objects left in more recent times include replicas of rafts, representing safe journeys to America, and photos of activists who have been imprisoned by Castro's government.
It is very rare to see anti-government statements in public in Cuba, but the Catholic Church has achieved some independence from the government, and the Virgin herself seems to transcend the dispute — members of Castro's military come here, too.
What to See
The shrine of Our Lady of Charity is housed in Cuba's only basilica, a cream-colored square church with red domes overlooking the town of El Cobre.
The statue resides in a small chapel above the high altar. It is about 16 inches tall and resembles a dark mestiza woman. She is known also by the affectionate title of El Cobre, referring not only to the copper-mining town in which she resides, but also to her dusky complexion.
The Virgin is dressed in an elaborate golden gown, a richly jeweled crown, and dangling earrings. She wears many expensive jewels brought to her by grateful pilgrims over the years.
During Mass, the Virgin statue is mechanically turned to face into the church, looking out over the congregation from behind a clear case high above the pulpit. After the service, she turns around to face the small chapel where she receives her visitors. Here pilgrims adore the statue, bring their requests to her, and leave votive gifts in thankfulness for prayers answered and miracles worked.
In a room downstairs are a variety of objects representing both prayer request and ex-votos for prayers answered, including letters, chunks of hair, wheelchairs, IV tubes, sports jerseys, posters, medals, and the Nobel Prize left by Ernest Hemingway. One recent gift was the thesis that earned a young man his degree, for which he had asked the Virgin for help in finishing.
Quick Facts on El Cobre
|cat:||Shrines; Catholic Shrines|
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|Coordinates:||20.056012° N, 75.952606° W (view on Google Maps)|
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Map of El Cobre
Below is a location map and aerial view of El Cobre. Using the buttons on the left (or the wheel on your mouse), you can zoom in for a closer look, or zoom out to get your bearings. To move around, click and drag the map with your mouse.
- Norbert C. Brockman, Encyclopedia of Sacred Places (Oxford University Press, 1998), 50-51.
- Cuban Saint Mystifies Catholic, Communist Leaders - Washington Post, July 27, 2006
- Raul Gomez-Treto, The Church and Socialism in Cuba (1988).
- Rene Laurentin, Pilgrimages, Sanctuaries, Icons and Apparitions (1994).
- Levi Marrero, Los esclavos y la Virgen del Cobre (1982).
- El Cobre - Go Historic
- Photos of El Cobre - here on Sacred Destinations
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