Amazing 2.7 Million People at One of the World's Largest Processions Honoring Mary as Divina Pastora or Mother of the Divine Shepherd in Venezuela


In Venezuela, 2.7 Million people participated in a procession honoring Mary the Mother of Jesus under her special title of Mother of the Divine Shepherd, which is popularly called Divina Pastora. This number was reported by the governor of the state of Lara, Adolfo Pereira on X. Every January 14, the day of the Divina Pastora is celebrated in the State of Lara, a festival that represents for everyone the peaceful and devout spirit that characterizes the State of Lara. It has become a tradition in which more and more devotees participate every year, coming not only from Barquisimeto but from the other states of the country.

Our Lady of Divine Pastor wears a different outfit every year, a gift that is donated by some  parishioners as a sign of affection, respect and admiration. This dress is placed a few days before her pilgrimage begins throughout the city, so it is taken as a holiday in the Parish of Santa Rosa and it is the day on which the celebration begins for her visit.

More than a custom , the procession of the Divina Pastora has become an act of faith where we can express our gratitude to the Virgin for the favors granted with so much love. 

The Mother of the Divine Shepherd , popularly called Divina Pastora, is a Marian devotion. Her image has its main center of veneration in the Sanctuary of Santa Rosa located in the Santa Rosa de Barquisimeto parish , in Venezuela. Every January 14, a massive Marian pilgrimage is celebrated, which is considered the third largest in the world, only surpassed by the one made with the Virgin of Guadalupe ( Mexico ) and the Virgin of Fátima ( Portugal ). However, since the image of the Virgin does leave the church and travel through a good part of the city; it can be said that it is the largest Marian procession in the world in terms of attendance level.

In 2016, more than 4 million parishioners attended the pilgrimage, in its 160th edition. 

Although the image of the Virgin as a shepherdess dates back to at least the 10th century , this particular devotion comes from Seville, Spain. In the year 1700, Brother Isidoro of Seville ( Capuchin friar ) received a vision in one of his dreams in which the Virgin Mary appeared to him in a countryside landscape, surrounded by trees and sheep, dressed in a purple tunic, a blue mantilla. and carrying in his hand a shepherd's staff, and at his side a threatening wolf hidden among the bushes, representing the devil. Moved by the beauty of this image, he went to the workshop of a famous painter, Alonso Miguel de Tovar, belonging to the Sevillian school of painting, and asked him to paint the image that he had in his dream.

With her shepherdess attire, highlighted on a banner between garlands and flowers on September 8, 1703, the painting of the image left the church of San Gil in a procession that toured the streets of Seville, accompanied by a large crowd that He offered a sung rosary. The Virgin in her invocation as Divina Pastor received public honor for the first time on a memorable day, as a Marian devotion linked by its origin to the Capuchin missionaries, who would be in charge of propagating the new invocation in Europe and America.

Years later, the sculptor Francisco Ruiz Gijón sculpted the life-size image of the Divina Pastora. And in 1705, the image was taken to its first procession in this European country.

Origins of devotion in Venezuela 

In 1706, this devotion began in Venezuela, when it spread to the plains of Caracas with the arrival of the Capuchins. Although there are no exact records of the year in which the veneration of the Divina Pastora began in the state of Lara , they say that around the year 1740, the parochial Vicar of the church of the Immaculate Conception - located in the center of Barquisimeto - wanted to incorporate into his church an image of the Divina Pastora, since he had known this invocation in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Caracas

Both priests recorded their requests in a single document to the same sculptor. The shipments were made and the boxes containing the images arrived at the same time, but changed, that is, the Divine Shepherdess arrived in Santa Rosa.

Image: De Guillermo De Armas - Trabajo propio, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53875981

Text Sources: Wikipedia and pastorapp.com.ve

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