December 20
Virgen de la Caridad, El Cobre, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba
Around 1612, two native brothers, Juan and Rodrigo de
Hoyos,
and a 10-year-old black slave, Juan Moreno, were canoeing to a
salt-harvesting area to get salt for the cattle belonging to a nearby
copper mining operation in northeast Cuba. But they had not gone far from
their camp on Frances Cay when a small statue floated toward them on the
Bay of Nipe: the Virgin and Child, mysteriously clothed in perfectly dry
vestments, on a board inscribed, "I am the Virgin of Charity."
They took her aboard, gathered a little salt, and brought their finds to
the ranch at Barajagua. The head of the mining operation had a chapel
built to house the statue and installed Rodrigo de Hoyos as caretaker.
After he repeatedly discovered the statue was disappearing from the locked
chapel and just as mysteriously returning, it was moved to El Cobre
(Copper), ten miles south, but it continued to come and go from the church
there. Then a girl named Apolonia saw the Virgin of Charity in the Sierra
Maestra foothills near the copper mine where her mother worked. The statue
was moved to the hills, where it has remained since, a miracle-working
focus of devotion for Catholic Cubans everywhere (as well as for
practitioners of Santerķa, for whom it represents the love goddess Ochun).
Often called by the affectionate nickname "Cachita," the terracotta Virgin of Charity of El Cobre stands only about 16" tall, holding the Child in her left hand and a jeweled cross in her right. Vested in flaring golden robes, she stands on an inverted silver crescent atop a silver orb decorated with angel heads.
In 1916, Pope Benedict XV proclaimed the Virgin of Charity patron of Cuba. On December 20, 1936, the Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba solemnly crowned the statue during the National Eucharistic Congress there, at the request of Pope Pius XI.
Offerings left by pilgrims include the shackles of the freed, the crutches of the healed, and the trophies of winners, including Olympic medals and Ernest Hemingway's Nobel Prize medal.
After the 1959 revolution, the shrine continued to exist—Pope Paul VI designated it a Basilica Minor in 1977—but without all the public expressions of faith of the old days. On January 24, 1998, the statue of the Virgin of Charity of El Cobre returned to the city of Santiago de Cuba, where Pope John Paul II recrowned it during his historic visit. Since then, the shrine has held processions on the Virgin's September 8 feast day and other holy days.
The church of St. Thomas Apostle in Santiago de Cuba houses another highly revered image of the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, known as the Virgin Mambisa (Swamp Virgin) for her help to insurrectionists fighting for freedom from Spain. In anticipation of the 400th anniversary of the Cobre devotion, La Mambisa toured Cuba in 2011, traveling over 18,000 miles between August and December, when it reached Havana, where the Church of La Caridad of Havana was proclaimed a Basilica Minor like that in Cobre. For the anniversary in 2012, Pope Benedict XVI said mass outdoors in Santiago de Cuba, in the presence of the statue from Cobre, which he presented with a Golden Rose, given by pontiffs to honor people, institutions, or devotions of deep significance.
Sources include:
 | Virgen de la Caridad, La Cachita. From "Santiago de Cuba," www.elsolarcubano.com (photo) |
| The shrine's former website, www.virgendelacaridaddelcobre.org |
| "Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre," Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre, es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgen_de_la_Caridad_del_Cobre |
| "Caridad del Cobre la Virgen Mambisa," Revistas Excelencias, archivo.revistasexcelencias.com/arte-por-excelencias/arte-22/caridad-del-cobre-la-virgen-mambisa |
| "Misa del Papa en Santiago de Cuba," www.rtve.es/fotogalerias/misa-del-papa-en-santiago-de-cuba/91816/papa-benedicto-xvi-deja-rosa-oro-honor-virgen-caridad-del-cobre/6/ |
| "Golden Rose," Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Rose |
Also commemorated this date:
| Madonna di Cravegna, Cravegna, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Piedmont, Italy. Painting on church facade began weeping, 1492. |
| Maria in der Tanne, Triberg, Schwarzwald-Baar, Baden-Württemberg, Germany (Mary in the Fir). Statue found, 1692. |
| Our Lady of the Rockies, Butte, Montana, USA. Monumental statue completed, 1985. |