Our Lady of Coromoto

In the mid-seventeenth century, near Guanare in the plains of western Venezuela, the Virgin appeared to the chief of the Cospes people, called Coromoto, and to his wife. Speaking in their own language, she asked them to go to the Spanish settlers to receive the water of baptism. The chief at first obeyed, but later grew weary of the new life and returned to the forest.

On September 8, 1652, according to the tradition, she appeared again in his hut. When the angry chief reached out to seize her, she vanished, leaving in his hand a tiny image of herself with the Child, painted on a fragment of bark. Coromoto fled, was bitten by a snake and, near death, asked to be baptized. Pope Pius XII declared Our Lady of Coromoto Patroness of Venezuela in 1944, and she was canonically crowned on September 11, 1952.

On September 11 pilgrims from all over Venezuela travel to her national shrine near Guanare, in Portuguesa State, consecrated by Saint John Paul II in 1996, where the tiny image is displayed in a monstrance-like reliquary. Parishes hold Masses, processions and serenades to the Virgin.

Venezuelan communities abroad, especially in Miami and Doral, gather for Mass and pray for their families and their country, and many Venezuelans wear her medal as a sign of their faith and homeland.