Our Lady
Our Lady of Divine Providence
Title of the Blessed Virgin Mary · Feast November 19 · Puerto Rico
Principal patroness of Puerto Rico, venerated in an image of the Virgin holding the sleeping Christ Child — the sleep of a child in his mother's arms taken as the picture of trust in God's providence.
Origin
The devotion began in Italy, where the Barnabite fathers spread the veneration of an image of the Madonna of Divine Providence kept in Rome. Bishop Gil Esteve y Tomás, arriving in San Juan in 1853 to a diocese in serious difficulty, entrusted his work to Our Lady of Divine Providence, and the devotion took root across the island. In 1969 St. Paul VI declared Our Lady of Divine Providence the principal patroness of Puerto Rico, and her feast is kept on 19 November.
Why it matters
Providence is not fate but the fatherly care by which God leads all things to their end, and the image translates that doctrine into something a family can read at a glance. Mary, who lived on nothing but that care from Nazareth to Calvary, teaches the believer the same abandonment: not passivity, but the confidence of a child who sleeps because he is held.
Feast day
November 19
Region
Puerto Rico
Iconography notes
The Virgin is shown seated with the Christ Child asleep across her lap, her hands gathered about him and her eyes lowered toward him. Nothing else is added: the whole meaning is in the child's untroubled sleep and the mother's attentiveness.
Aliases
Nuestra Señora de la Divina Providencia
Madonna della Divina Provvidenza
Content subtype
devotional_title
Associated prayers
hail-mary
memorare
litany-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary