The Black Christ of Esquipulas

In 1594 the people of Esquipulas, a town in eastern Guatemala near the borders of Honduras and El Salvador, commissioned the sculptor Quirio Cataño in Santiago de los Caballeros (today Antigua Guatemala) to carve an image of Christ crucified. The finished crucifix, made of wood that darkened over the years, partly from the smoke of countless candles, became known as the Cristo Negro, the Black Christ.

Reports of healings soon spread, and pilgrims came from throughout the region. In the 18th century Archbishop Pedro Pardo de Figueroa, who attributed his own cure to the Señor de Esquipulas, built the great white basilica that was consecrated in 1759. Pope John XXIII raised it to a minor basilica in 1961. The shrine, often called the spiritual capital of Central America, receives over a million visitors a year.

On January 15 and the days around it, pilgrims from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Mexico and the United States fill Esquipulas, many walking for days and some approaching the image on their knees. Pilgrims take home blessed earth tablets and hats decorated with Spanish moss. The devotion has spread to Mexico, the American Southwest and Central American communities everywhere.