The Queen of American peoples
This revered image, swathed in centuries of faith, stands in the church of the Franciscan monastery at Izamal. She poses with her head tilted slightly to the right, her tender gaze directed downwards, and her hands held upwards and clasped in prayer.
The particular features of this statue are complemented by the crown the Virgin wears on her head, her hair veiled by a mantilla, the elegance of her white gown, and the jewels she wears.
This carving of the Virgin Mary, in her advocation of the Immaculate Conception, is said to be one of two that friar Diego de Landa had brought from the city of Antigua, Guatemala, around 1560, since in the mid-16th century, that was where the finest Colonial religious pieces were crafted.
One of these two statues remained in the now-disappeared Great Monastery of St. Francis in Merida, and the other was taken to Izamal. On the morning of Good Friday, 17th April 1829, a fire broke out and consumed everything inside the church at Izamal, including the beloved statue. The lost image was replaced with the one that had remained in the capital.
The Virgin of Izamal evokes particular devotion from the Catholic faithful. She is held to be the Patroness of Yucatan, and several miracles have been attributed to her since the 16th century. During Colonial times she was taken to Merida on numerous occasions as a source of divine intercession against plagues, famines and other calamities that ravaged the region. The first of these was in 1648, when an epidemic of yellow fever devastated the Yucatan Peninsula. In the 18th century, she was brought to the capital on three occasions: in 1730, when the yellow fever returned, in 1744 during a famine, and in 1769 for a plague of locusts.
It was in recognition of precisely these favors and this protection that in 1648 the city and church authorities bestowed upon her the initial title of “Patroness, Mother and Advocate of the city of Merida and of these Provinces, against any sickness, calamity, toil or hunger they may suffer….”
Subsequently, in 1730, the governor Antonio de Figueroa y Silva, a military officer with the ranks of Brigadier and later Field Marshal, named the Virgin “Queen and Governess, Captain-General and Supreme Soverign of Yucatan”, in addition to her previous titles.
In 1949, Pope Pius XII authorized her coronation as Queen and Patroness of the Archdiocese of Yucatan, a ceremony which was carried out by Archbishop Fernando Ruiz Solórzano. In 1993, the Virgin of Izamal was crowned as Queen and Patron of the Peoples of America by Pope John Paul II.
The Virgin of Izamal, or Our Lady of Izamal, is displayed in the monastery church every day of the year, and can be seen either in the main reredos, or in in her Chamber.
The feast of this advocation of the Virgin Mary is marked by religious and secular celebrations on the 8th December.
The city of Izamal is 70 km (43 miles) east of Merida. In 2002 it was named a Magical Town, becoming the first place in Yucatan or the Southeast to receive this distinction.
In her article “The Virgin of Izamal: Marian cult and devotion” Dr. Stella María González Cicero states that the name of the city derives from that of its founder, Zamná, a pre-Hispanic priest of Itzamná or Itzamatul, the Mayan god who created all things, including man.
In popular tradition, Our Lady of Izamal makes an appearance in various legends that connect her sanctuary with pre-Colombian ruins; people also talk of a second Virgin in the town, said to be her sister, or of invisible Marian manifestations revealed only by the perfume of flowers.
Some major historical events linked to this jewel of sacred art are the epidemics, famines and plagues that swept the region in the 17th and 18th centuries, as mentioned above, as well as the Mayan rebellion known as the Caste War, which began in the mid-19th century.
The year after the conflict broke out in 1847, the Mayan insurgents had occupied almost all the towns of the Peninsula, with the exception of San Francisco de Campeche and Merida. Chronicles of the time record that, in May 1848, when the indigenous rebels took Izamal, they stayed there for two weeks, during which time they venerated the Virgin, visiting her sanctuary, and refraining from causing any damage: indeed, they left offerings in cash and in kind. The documents stress that when the insurgents withdrew, they went to bid farewell to the holy image.
Two of the most important historical figures connected to the statue are fray Diego de Landa in the 16th century, and Pope John Paul II in the 20th. The former, a colonial missionary, introduced the cult of this advocation of the Virgin Mary, while the latter crowned her in the atrium of the church as the Patroness of the Peoples of America.
Ubication