Saint Mary the Ancient, Patroness of Panam

Saint Mary the Ancient, Patroness of Panama
The image of the Blessed Virgin Mary was located in a side chapel of the Cathedral of Seville-Spain. This cathedral was rebuilt in the 14th century and the image was preserved. Thus it came to be called Santa María de la Antigua (that is, of the Old Cathedral).

Santa María La Antigua was the first patron saint to arrive to the Isthmus of Panama in 1510 and was first established in a village in Darién. This happened when Vasco Núñez de Balboa and Bachiller Martín Fernández de Enciso arrived that year. They had promised the Virgin Mary to name a town after her if they came out alive from a fierce battle they had with the natives. Thus it was that, after the victory, the town of the cacique Cémaco was given the name of Santa María La Antigua.

On September 9, 1513, Pope Leo X created the first diocese in Tierra Firme in Santa Maria La Antigua and the chapel of the Virgin was elevated to the rank of cathedral. This new diocese was a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Seville. On August 15, 1519 the City of Panama was founded and Our Lady of Summer or of the Assumption was honored. But in 1524 the diocese of Santa Maria la Antigua moved to the newly founded city of Panama. The invocation was also transferred and Santa Maria la Antigua became, by ecclesiastical continuity, the patron saint of the capital of Panama and patroness of the Kingdom of Tierra Firme del Sur de Castilla del Oro, Panama.

A few years ago, the oil painting from the Quito school dedicated to the Assumption was removed from the Metropolitan Cathedral and replaced by one of La Antigua.

The half-length painting of Our Lady of Mercy was brought to Panama in the 17th century. It is said that when the pirate Henry Morgan assaulted and burned the city in 1671, the painting remained intact, despite the fact that almost the entire population was destroyed.

In 1990 the people in charge of that parish removed it and closed the chapel (the first stone building built in the new Panama and where mass was first celebrated) to "restore" it. The thing is that the whereabouts of the oil painting saved from the fire of the old Panama is not known and besides, nobody knows the whereabouts of the trousseau that she wore in ears, ring and necklace or the gold crown and cameo.

On December 8, solemnity of the Immaculate Virgin, officially declared a national holiday, Panama dresses up to celebrate the great joy of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, which coincides in Panama with "Mother's Day".