As statisticians and demographers are increasingly realizing, Spanish speaking and Latino/a populations are not monolithic, as they exhibit tremendous diversity in everything from cuisine to musical trends to overarching collective personality traits to voting patterns.
This applies also to Marian devotions as well, which is evident in any Spanish language missal, where various local celebrations are usually connected by community. The central feast for many Puerto Rican communities occurs this week on November 19, when the Church marks the veneration of Our Lady of Divine Providence.
In 1969, Pope Paul VI declared Our Lady of Divine Providence to be the principal patroness of the island of Puerto Rico, on which is found the oldest Catholic diocese on current U.S. soil. The reason the feast was moved to this day is because it was on November 19 that Europeans and indigenous communities first encountered one another in 1493. The notion behind it seemed to be to unite the national pride in what locals often refer to as Borinquen, from the isle’s Taíno name, with Mary’s protection under the title.
Side note: Nearly 40% of the extremely large stateside Puerto Rican population live in Florida and New York. But right behind them is New Jersey with about half a million residents, including a many displaced by Hurricane Maria in 2017.
I should also mention, both Indiana and Rhode Island natives hold Mary as a patroness under this title, too, which can be traced to devotion by both the Order of the Servants of Mary (the Servites) and the Clerics Regular of St. Paul (the Barnabites).
Inextricable from the title is Scipione Pulzone’s masterful rendition of the Virgin and child titled the Mater Divinae Providentiae, an intimate scene where the baby lovingly curls his hand around his mother’s fingers. The tenderness in the scene is aimed at capturing the relationship between Jesus and the “Queen of the Home,” as the Lord allows a share of his authority to intervene for the good of the world to be placed in her capable hands.
The chief sanctuary of Nuestra Señora Madre de la Divina Providencia is a pilgrim destination in the Cupey Alto area of San Juan, where puertorriqueńos and people of all backgrounds visit to pay homage to the Virgin under this title, and to “look ahead” (“pro”-“videre”) to the coming of God’s Kingdom and her role in accompanying us to work and pray for it. As the community often phrases it: “Bendita sea tu pureza, y eternamente lo sea, pues todo un Dios se recrea en tan graciosa belleza. A Ti, celestial Princesa, Virgen Sagrada María, yo te ofrezco en este día alma, vida y corazón. Mírame con compasión, no me dejes, Madre mía.”
The Puerto Rican devotion to Our Lady of Divine Providence brings to mind the work of theologian Richard Gaillardetz, who devastatingly passed away too soon this week from pancreatic cancer. He has a brilliant analysis of the phenomenon of popular piety in his book “By What Authority? A Primer on Scripture, the Magisterium, and the Sense of the Faithful.”
In his book he ponders how best to imagine popular piety and devotions like Our Lady of Divine Providence (though not mentioned in the text by name) as flowing upwards and outwards from the concrete prayer-lives of the faithful, not received by mandate handed down from ecclesial power somewhere on high.
He notes that it is how Christians express their faith through many forms that leads bishops, who are immersed in the life of the church, to “receive these faith expressions and assess their fidelity to the apostolic tradition.”
When the need arises, bishops – assisted by theologians – can give doctrinal form to the insights already present in the community, such as a particular devotion to Mary.
This makes quite logical sense, because I think it is fairly obvious that no pope, bishop, or theologian could, in the end, coerce or oblige someone to authentically love Mary under a particular title or image (e.g. the star of the sea, un-tier of knots, seat of wisdom, etc.). Though one can introduce a community to the long arc of the thinking of the church about Mary, the saints, or other moral, spiritual, and pastoral themes, true reception and passion for them floods forth from the People of God, it cannot be imposed upon them.
An alumnus of Camden Catholic High School, Cherry Hill, Michael M. Canaris, Ph.D., teaches at Loyola University, Chicago.
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