As every February 3rd, the devotion of the Hondurans overflows this day celebrating one more anniversary of the discovery of the Virgin of Suyapa, Patroness of Honduras. And after 267 years of the miraculous encounter, it remains entrenched in the hearts of Hondurans, both inside and outside the country, who profess the Catholic religion. The image has become a treasure for the Catholic people and a referent of faith, love and peace that Hondurans so long for. Virgin of Suyapa The diminutive image of Our Lady of the Conception of Suyapa is an ancient work, carved in cedar by the hands and faith of an anonymous artist.
The 6.5 cm image is dark, with features of an indigenous woman, with an oval face, large eyes, rounded cheeks, tiny mouth, spattered nose, and a lacy black hair that reaches her shoulders. She also wears a pale pink shirt and has her tiny hands joined in prayer. A miraculous history To trace the origins of the Virgin is necessary to resort to the historian Juan B. Valladares R., who after much research, wrote the book “Virgin of Suyapa” in 1946, not forgetting Jacobo Galindo, who at age 70, in 1909 narrated in the “Historical News” events. According to investigated by Valladares, the image was found on a clear night of a Saturday Of the month of February of 1747 in a wooded site of pines of the mountain El Piligüín, By the young Alejandro Colindres and the boy Lorenzo Martínez. The two peasants returned from the daily tasks in the milpas, Alexander and Lorenzo were surprised at night in the middle of the way to the village of Suyapa, reason why they decided to spend the night in the mountain. “As one of them lay in the ground, a strange solid body thrust his breast, he took it then and without examining it in the darkness of the night, he deposited it in his traveling equipment, without being aware of the object.” Stories, it is mentioned that the young man threw the object and went back to bed, but again he felt something bother him, but this time, instead of throwing it, he put it in his saddlebag. However, they coincide in the fact that when he arrived at his house in Suyapa, at the dawn of the day, he gave it to his mother Ana Caraballo, who kept it carefully. ”
Miracles and promises Many miracles are attributed to the Virgin, among them her own discovery, argued in the fact that the humble peasant who found her knew perfectly the path and distance between El Piligüín and Suyapa village. Having to sleep in the forest, it was God’s providence that intervened to approach the Honduran people, apparently in a casual way. However, the first miracle that attracts attention is when Captain Joseph de Celaya, the butler of the hacienda San Jose de El Trapiche, was healed of the “bad stone” or calculations in the bladder. Valladares explains that Celaya promised to the Virgin of Suyapa that if he healed it would build a small church in which they would perform Masses in his honor all year. The next day,
Disappearance of the image The story records that on two occasions the Virgin was stolen from the temple, causing great commotion among the devotees, who thanks to the intervention of the authorities has returned to the sanctuary. The first event occurred on April 12, 1936, when a mentally ill named Dolores Chávez Corpino managed to stay the night before in the sanctuary, broke the glass of the golden dressing room, took the picture and took her home.
The neighbors advised that Chavez Corpeño had it in his house in the neighborhood Sipile de Comayagüela, which was returned to the parish priest of the Cathedral through a procession to the Sanctuary of the village Suyapa on April 19. In 1982 another robbery occurred, when criminals Introduced the church, took the Virgin and stripped her rich clothes and gold crown. On this occasion, when they were afraid of popular outrage, they went to deposit at night hours wrapped in newspaper in a toilet In the center of the Honduran capital. His owner, Jose Barroso, when he realized the discovery, delivered it in the Archbishop’s Palace to Monsignor Hector Enrique Santos, head of the Archdiocese of Tegucigalpa, who days later took her again To his sanctuary.