Venezuela: Celebrations in honor of the Virgin of Guadalupe de Carrizal

Mexico and Venezuela share a very special grace from Heaven. God wanted his Holy Mother to appear in both countries. But there is a deeper link, unknown to many, that unites the history of Marian faith of both nations: Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Guadalupe and Coromoto would also be the only Marian manifestations in history that have left “living images” of the Blessed Virgin: the tilma of San Juan Diego and the miraculous image that appeared in the hand of the chief Coromoto, a small canvas of 2.5 centimeters high that has the image of the Virgin with the Child Jesus printed on it.

It was June 1531, when the Diocese of Venezuela was founded, with its first headquarters in the city of Coro, in the current state of Falcón. That same year, in December, “the ever Virgin Mary, Mother of the true God, for whom one lives” would reveal herself to the Indian Juan Diego.

Almost 200 years later, the “morenita del Tepeyac” would also arrive in Coro. One fine day in February 1723, a group of Caquetío Indians were preparing to go fishing, when they found a chest on the shore of the beach. Inside there were several objects, including a rolled canvas, which had the image of “a beautiful lady.”

Such was the impression that the beauty of the woman on the canvas made on them that they took it to their settlement, in the town of El Carrizal, where they nailed it inside a hut. It was a priest, Pedro de Sangronis, who had earned the respect of the indigenous people for his evangelization work in the area, who saw the canvas and explained to them that it was the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe, who appeared in Mexico.

The love and devotion for the Mother of God expanded in such a way that on May 1, 1723, two Indians were baptized under the names of Juan Diego and Juan Bernardino. A few months later, in September, the town of Valle de El Carrizal de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe would be officially founded.

A hermitage was built there where the Guadalupana image was enthroned on the main altar. The temple underwent several renovations over time, until it became what it is today. In 1928, Pope Pius

Then, in 1994, the El Carrizal hermitage was elevated to a Diocesan Sanctuary and in 2008, the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference (CEV) declared it the National Marian Sanctuary of Venezuela. Likewise, that same year, Pope Benedict XVI elevated the sanctuary to the dignity of Holy Basilica Menor of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

“The Guadalupe devotion rooted in El Carrizal has regional, national and international significance,” Father Arling Moreno, rector of the Guadalupe sanctuary, explains to ACI Prensa. “This year we celebrate 301 years since the miraculous discovery of the canvas,” he adds.

For the priest, “only what is touched by God has the ability to remain in time,” and he highlights that Providence wanted the trunk in which the image arrived to go through a long journey and powerful currents to run aground on the Falconian coasts. . Father Moreno affirms that this is a true miracle, and also “that the indigenous people have guarded the image and it is still guarded today,” he specifies.

The priest even says that there are testimonies from people who were present during the only restoration process that was carried out on the image, and who affirm that the tears in the canvas were repaired in an incredible way and the image immediately recovered its color.

“The only Mariophanies that have left real evidence are found in Mexico and Venezuela, this tells us that God has his sights set on all of us. In 1531 the Virgin appeared in Mexico and perhaps from there she saw this new nascent Church. In these apparitions we can feel the great love that God has had for us, by giving us such a good Mother,” he says.

The rector of the Guadalupana Basilica of El Carrizal ponders the importance of the Virgin’s message in both countries, where temples were built in her honor always with the consent of the bishops, Juan de Zumárraga, in Mexico, and Rodrigo de Bastidas, in Venezuela . “The Virgin seeks to ‘make Church’, because she is Mother of the Church,” he highlights.

For the celebrations of the day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the El Carrizal sanctuary has organized the “March of Faith” since 1984, a 28-kilometer route through the entire town, carrying the Guadalupe canvas. “It is the most extensive pilgrimage that exists in Venezuela,” comments Father Moreno.

The church of Our Lady of Guadalupe in El Carrizal and the entire Archdiocese of Coro await more than 40,000 pilgrims on December 11 and 12. A day of meeting and prayer, “regardless of differences of any kind, to accompany Our Mother as children,” concludes the priest.