Cuban statue of patron saint ends historic journey

[dipsydoodle]

Thousands of Roman Catholics in Cuba have gathered for an open-air mass to mark the end of a 16-month tour of a statue of the island's patron saint.

Some 3,000 people crowded along Havana Bay for the ceremony and to pay tribute to the Virgin of Charity of Cobre.

During the mass, Church leaders called for reconciliation among Cubans and urged further economic reform.

The tour was the first such religious display since before the Communists came to power in 1959.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-16370907

[flamingdem]

1. Ochun is the syncretized version of Virgin of Charity of course

I'm surprised the article didn't mention that. Ochun is a mulatta and is more well known and revered than the Virgin of Charity though to many it's just the same thing.

This sounds like a reference to her however, from the speech quoted, as she is known to have arrived in a boat and is the patron saint of rivers:

"Mother, come again over the sometimes agitated waves of our history, and with your mantle, that the waters can never dampen, cover all the Cubans, also those that live outside of Cuba," he said.

This is also referenced in the film Miel para Ochun - Honey for Ochun - which has the long lost mother who is mixed race landing in Baracoa in a boat as per the myth.