Nuestra Señora de Coromoto, Guanare, Portuguesa, Venezuela		Pope John Paul II visits Our Lady of Coromoto, 1996 (source: profile.myspace.com)
Photo of 1652 image from Nuestra Señora de Coromoto, Patrona de Venezuela, bellasenora.blogspot.com	The image of Our Lady of Coromoto, patron of Venezuela, is a stamp-sized picture, less than an inch square, which the Virgin herself is believed to have left in the hand of a recalcitrant native chief on September 8, 1652. Details of the story vary. Some say the chief's name was Coromoto and his tribe the Cospes, others that Coromoto was the name of the tribe. However, it is not clear that there were any tribes or caciques so named in Venezuela. Some say that the Virgin first appeared to the chief (and, some add, his wife) in 1651, in a river or field, recommending that he seek the water of eternal life (baptism). But finding the lifestyle that went along with baptism intolerable, he retreated to his village.
Some say the apparition of 1652 took place in the river, others that it occurred in the chief's house, and that, in angry rejection of the new ways, he struck at the smiling Lady, who then vanished, leaving behind her portrait in his fist. Others make that apparition the first. In any case, the chief and his family then became Catholics, and the holy image a focus of devotion. The shrine has three fiestas: February 2, the Feast of the Purification; September 8, the Birth of the Virgin; and September 11, the anniversary of the coronation of Our Lady of Coromoto in 1952.

Also commemorated this date:

	Holy Name of Mary, Ambrosian Calendar of Milan
	Notre Dame de Bon Espoir, Dijon, Burgundy, France (Our Lady of Good Hope). Procession during siege, 1513; liberation, 1944.
	Notre Dame de Peyragude, Penne-d'Agenais, Lot-et-Garonne, Aquitaine, France. Basilica consecrated, 1949. Feast 2nd Sun. in Sept.
	Madonna del Castagno, Montecompatri, Roma, Latium, Italy. End of cholera epidemic, 1867. Now celebrated 1st weekend in Sept.
	Matka Boża Łaskawa, Wrocław, Lower Silesia, Poland (Gracious Mother of God). Icon crowned, 1994.
	Matka Boska Łopieńska, Polańczyk, Lesko, Subcarpathia, Poland (Mother of God of Łopianka). 1600s icon crowned, 1999.
	Virgen del Rosario, A Coruña, A Coruña, Galicia, Spain. Statue crowned, 1960.
	Virgen de la Cueva, Hontangas de Roa, Burgos, Castile and León, Spain (Virgin of the Cave). Also Friday after Easter.
	Nuestra Señora del Rosario, Aldea del Obispo, Cáceres, Extremadura, Spain

 

Where We Walked ~~~ Mary Ann Daly