Our Lady
Our Lady of Coromoto
Title of the Blessed Virgin Mary · Feast September 11 · Venezuela
Patroness of Venezuela, honoured at Guanare, where a minute image of the Virgin and Child is kept as a relic of the events by which the Cospes people were drawn to baptism.
Origin
The devotion goes back to the middle of the seventeenth century in the plains near Guanare, where, according to the account handed down, the Blessed Virgin urged the chief of the Cospes and his people to receive baptism, and a very small image was left behind and afterwards enshrined. Pope Pius XII declared Our Lady of Coromoto patroness of Venezuela in 1942. The relic is venerated at the national shrine at Guanare, and her feast is kept in Venezuela on 11 September.
Why it matters
Coromoto belongs to the missionary history of the Americas that Ecclesia in America describes, in which Marian devotion opened the way for the preaching of the Gospel among indigenous peoples. The whole content of the account is a call to baptism, which keeps the devotion pointed where it belongs: Mary's word to the Cospes is the word she speaks at Cana, do whatever he tells you.
Feast day
September 11
Region
Venezuela
Iconography notes
The image itself is astonishingly small, smaller than a postage stamp, showing the Virgin seated with the Child; it is displayed in a monstrance-like reliquary so that pilgrims can see it. The paintings and statues made from it enlarge the same seated composition.
Aliases
- Nuestra Señora de Coromoto
- Virgen de Coromoto
Content subtype
devotional_title
Associated prayers
hail-mary
salve-regina
litany-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary