Patroness of the walled city
From her niche in the Saints’ Reredos, the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception presides over Campeche Cathedral, a church dedicated to her from its earliest beginnings in the 16th century as a modest chapel of stone, mortar and palm-leaf roofs, when the state capital was still a small town with few inhabitants and few resources.
The artistic features of the sculpture, carved in polychrome and estofado wood, allow us to date its manufacture to the 17th century, possibly outside the Yucatan Peninsula.
Over the years, popular devotion has bestowed rich silver adornments on the venerated statue: according to the archaeologist Luis Millet Cámara, the base upon which she stands, a half-moon, a crown and the resplendance at her back are all examples of the silversmith’s art, possibly from Campeche.
However, the most valuable part of the whole is the solid silver pedestal on which the statue stands in the niche. It was brought from the capital of New Spain and gifted to the Virgin by the family of alderman Bartolomé Borreiro at the beginning of the 19th century.
The Catholic church celebrates the mystery of the Immaculate Conception of Mary on the 8th December, commemorating the fact that the Mother of God “was preserved from all stain of original sin from the first instant of her conception.”
Although the Patroness of the Diocese of Campeche is the Virgin of Mt. Carmel, the Immaculate Conception, patroness of the city, is highly venerated by the local faithful, who have organized solemn festivals on her day, with masses and processions, since the times of the Vice-regency. Mario Humberto Ruz, a researcher with the Center for Mayan Studies at the UNAM, writes that it appears from the Cathedral archives that, in the 18th century, and on the initiative of the influential Confraternity of the Most Holy Sacrament, it was normal “on the eighth day of the first six months of the year, at seven in the morning, to offer a sung mass to the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception.”
In fact, this fraternity – a popular meeting-place for the aristocracy of Campeche, although open to everyone – proclaimed the Immaculate Conception as “their principal advocate, trusting that they would thus attain perpetuity, progress and perfection.”
Despite the vicissitudes and vagaries of time, such devotion has remained alive to this day. In fact, in many homes people still celebrate a “Little Nativity” on the eighth December, with sweet bread and hot chocolate; a tradition unique to Campeche that joyfully commemorates the blessed event of Mary’s Conception.
The image is on display every day on the high altar of Campeche Cathedral.
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