Our Lady of Suyapa Patroness of Honduras
Feast: February 3rd
The tiny image of Our Lady of the Conception of Suyapa was found one Saturday in February, by Alejandro Colindres, a young and humble farmer and an eight year old boy named Jorge Martinez, who were returning to the village of Suyapa, tired from working all day in the corn harvest.
They were already halfway through the day when night fell. They had arrived at the Piligüín ravine, a good place to spend the night. There they lay down on the hard ground. Immediately, Alejandro felt that an object, apparently a stone, prevented him from adjusting his back. In the dark he picked it up from the ground and threw it away. Curiously, when he lay down again, he felt that discomfort in the same place and this time he did not throw it away but, intrigued by what had happened, he put it in his backpack. In the light of dawn he was surprised to discover that the mysterious object was a small image of Our Lady carved in cedar wood.
Our Lady of Suyapa measures barely six and a half centimeters; very old work possibly worked with devotion by some amateur artist. Her angelic gaze reflects the nobility of the indigenous race. She is dark, with an oval face, rounded cheeks, and her lazy hair reaches her shoulders. The little image has her tiny hands clasped together in an attitude of prayer. The original color of her garment is pale pink, which is barely visible because it is completely covered by a dark mantle studded with golden stars and adorned with valuable jewels. Placed in front of the image, a gleam of gilded silver frames it. It is a peculiar thing, since both the glow and the halo are usually seen on the back of the images. The radiance is formed by two closed rings in the shape of a number eight from which the rays that surround the Virgin emerge. The upper ring is surrounded by twelve silver stars. The whole reminds us of the woman clothed with the sun that appears in the Apocalypse. Of solid silver is the sphere that supports the image that the Honduran people venerate so much.
In 1925 Pius XII declared Our Lady of Suyapa Patroness of the Republic of Honduras, and February 3 was chosen as the day of the patronal celebration, with its own Mass and office.
The first notable miracle, attested notarially, occurred in 1796. The first hermitage was blessed in 1780 and the present temple, of enormous proportions, capable of housing the multitudes that go on pilgrimage to Suyapa, received the visit of John Paul II in 1983. In the country of the poor, this Sanctuary of Santa Maria de Suyapa is located in one of the most humble areas of the city.
