The Divine Shepherdess: Devotion, Faith and Hope that Lives in the Heart of the People

Every January 14th, parishioners celebrate the Day of the Divine Shepherdess, patron saint of Barquisimeto.

In Venezuela, devotion spread to the plains of Caracas with the arrival of the Capuchins around 1706. One of those capuchins was Fray Marcelino de San Vicente, prefect of the missions of the plains.

During the 18th century, the Capuchin Fathers made the Divine Shepherdess known to the Gayones of the Bobare savannas, so she was used as an emblem of the peacemaking efforts of the Plains Indians and the Gayones of Santa Rosa.

In the middle of the 19th century, an event took place that contributed to the consolidation of the Divine Shepherdess as the patron saint of the state of Lara.

In 1855, a terrible cholera epidemic broke out in Venezuela. Many families in Barquisimeto died from the terrible disease, and in the face of which the medicines known up to that time were completely useless. Desperate, the villagers decided to draw the image of the Divine Shepherdess in procession through the streets of Barquisimeto, to implore her intercession in the face of the epidemic, so that, starting that same day, the cholera epidemic began to cease. Father Macario Yépez asked Our Lady to be the last victim of this disease in order to take care of his parishioners and she granted it to him.

This is why, in memory of that event, in Barquisimeto there is a massive and fervent procession to the Divine Shepherdess to the Cathedral of Barquisimeto from its church of Santa Rosa, which is considered to be the second most important procession in Latin America.

Mazo News Team