Our Lady of Charity

At times referred to as Our Lady of Cobre, this is a Cuban Patroness whose basilica has been named, Basílica Santuario Nacional de Nuestra Señora de la Caridad del Cobre or National Shrine Basilica of Our Lady of Charity. The basilica was built in the year 1926 and is found in El Cobre village which is near Santiago de Cuba.

Requesting petitions for the following:

• Protection for the family.
• Help for finding love.
• Return of a lover.
• Feast:  8-Sep
• Day: Saturday
• Candle/ Emblem: Yellow
• Matters concerning: Protection of family and home, bring new love, or money, and return love.

Background of La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre

The story started in between 1604n and 1612. There were two brothers namely; Juan de Hoyos and Rodrigo, they also had a slave who was known as Juan Moreno. The three set out to look for salt in the Bay of Nipe.

The use of the salt was to be the preservation of meat in a slaughterhouse at Barajagua, this slaughterhouse was essential in the supply of flesh in Santiago del Prado which was occupied by foreign workers and local inhabitants, these days it has been renamed El Cobre. When they were out in the waters, all of a sudden, there arose and they were at great risk of getting drowned as their boat was tiny and could get easily wrecked by the violent water waves.

Juan, who was their slave, had a medal that bore Mary the Virgin’s image. They had no option but to ask for her protection, of what she did and to their astonishment, the storm cleared and they were safe. Suddenly, they saw floating object, due o curiosity, they rowed their boat towards it and to their astonishment it was a girl and not an object as they were thinking.

On having a closer look mat the girl, they found out that she was Mary the Virgin holding baby Jesus on the right and a golden cross on the left hand. The statue had a board that bore the words “I am the virgin of Charity” in the Cuban language. The statue was dressed like a normal human had Mary had the normal skin and hair that an ordinary woman has.

Since they were so overjoyed by what they saw, they were ambitious to get home and hence they collected just a third of the salt and headed fro home. On reaching Baragajua, they decide to show a government official the statue and named Don Francisco Sánchez de Moya, he was so impressed that he ordered for the building of a ceremonial chapel that was to commemorate the event.

However, on visiting the chapel one day, Rodrigo realized that the image was not there and this really shocked them that they set out to search for the image but all was in vain, there was no hope of finding Our Lady of Charity.

On going back the following day, they found her back in the altar assuming business as usual; they could not believe this as the chapel had been locked all that time. On discussing the issue with some of the Barajaguans, they concluded that, probably she behaved that way because of the need to change the location.

With regard to this; they moved her to El Cobre. There she was received joyfully as the church rang bells to appreciate her being around, here she was given a new name, “Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre”. Just like before, she continued to disappear all the time,.

One time when playing outside a young girl went up the mountains named “Sierra Maestra”, to her surprise; she found the statue on top of the hill. The young girl’s story was somehow unbelievable but at last the people agreed to build a church on the spot that she appeared. They then took her there; many people argue that she preferred to be in El Cobre as it is surrounded by extreme natural beauty.