El Cobre: Our Lady of Charity

The Shrine of El Cobre, on a hill 10 miles away from Santiago de Cuba, dates back to the 17th century.

Origin (1)

According to tradition, Alonso de Ojeda, a Spanish commander, was once in mortal danger when his ship was tossed about by a storm in the Caribbean Sea. He had with him a statue of the Virgin with Child, to whom he vowed to build a chapel if he escaped shipwreck. When he eventually landed in Cuba, he fulfilled his promise to El Cobre.

Another source reports that three men, two Indians and a Black man, who were lost at sea during a storm when they saw the statue, with this inscription at the base: "I am the Virgin of Charity." This version is more likely, since the Spaniards often used to throw their religious objects in the sea to save from profanation by pirates.

A third version of the story tells that the statue was fished out of the sea by workers of a salt marsh. The Virgin's fabric cloak wasn't even damp... The men came back to the shore full of joy.

Patroness of the Cuban nation

El Cobre is the first place in Cuba where the slaves won their freedom. (3)

The first act of free Cuba occurred in 1898 when the troops of General Calixto Garcia knelt before the Virgen de la Caridad during a solemn Mass for the Mambisa Declaration of Independence of the Cuban people. (3)

On May 10, 1916, at the end of the war for national independence, Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre was declared Patroness of Cuba.

And during the year 1952, her statue was transported from village to village. (1)

Hail, hail, delight of Heaven,

Virgin pure, supreme beauty;

Hail, excellent patroness of Cuba,

Mother radiant with charity. [...]

When tears were the bread of your sons,

And their existence was in terrible anguish,

You were, O sweet Mother, the Star

Announcing the dawn of Peace. (2)

Another shrine to Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre is in Miami, Florida in the United States. (1)

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(1) Attilio GALLI, Madre della Chiesa dei Cinque continenti, Ed. Segno, Udine, 1997.

(2) B.H. Toledo, La Vergine del Cobre, in: Madre di Dio, n° 6; Giunio 1975.

(3) John Paul II, Homily of January 24, 1998.