Tenerife
The present day Black Madonna of Candelaria in her basilica
La Virgen de la Candelaria
(the Virgin of the big candle)
La Morenita (Dear Dark One)
Patronness of the Canary Islands
In the town of Candelaria on the East coast of Tenerife, some 20 km South of Santa Cruz, in the Basilica de Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria stands the Black Madonna, a 19th century “copy” of how the original was perceived by the faithful by the time it disappeared, life size wood.
A copy of the original Virgin of Candelaria in the Cave of St. Blaise. Foto: Ella Rozett
This statue washed up in Tenerife at the end of the fourteenth century, shortly before the Canary Islands were occupied by Spain (1402 – 1496) and when the native Guanches were still “Pagans”. They decended from Maroccan Berbers and others and had developed a more than two thousand year old culture with pyramids, mummies, temples, an order of priests and nuns, etc.¹ They worshipped many deities, but seemed to have a special devotion to the Phoenician goddess Tanit.²
Several things about the original statue are remarkable.
She holds in her hand a green candle, which was used as a candle holder, hence her name “Candelaria”. In the 19th century copy we find in her basilica today it looks more like a scepter. There is another Black Madonna, who is associated with green candles: Notre Dame de Confession in Marseille. People (including myself) have made educated guesses as to what those green candles are about, but we don’t really know for sure. It’s one of those ancient, Catholic mysteries, whose power is transmitted over the millennia without the intellect getting in the way, or as you may say, without the light of reason shining on it.
The original “Black Madonna” was blond as were the Guanche kings and many of their subjects. Blond hair was very important to them. It helped prove the “purity of their blood” without which they could not belong to the aristocracy.³
The Christ child is nacked, which may have reminded the Guanches of a statue they venerated in a spiral shaped temple of an almost nacked man, only his genitals covered with palmleaves, holding an orb.⁴ Baby Jesus is often similarly portrayed holding a ball.
The fact that such a statue came from the sea would have touched the Guanches deeply, because their religion taught that: “Out of the sea came the souls of their ancestors, out of the sea came and in it hid the star that guided their lives, the sun.”⁵
An exact copy of the original, produced in the 16th century and exhibited in the hermitage St. Ursula in Adeje, Tenerfie.
We’ll probably never know if this Madonna was washed up on the beach in Tenerife by the hand of God or by conniving Spaniards. Local Communists (such as our waiter in Candelaria) charge that the Conquistadores threw her over board near the isles in hopes that she would help pave the way for the Christianization and conquest of the Canaries. This is conceivable, because about fifty years before the beginning of the Spanish conquest, Franciscan missionaries had begun their efforts to evangelize the islands.⁶
Nonetheless, a less manipulative explanation is also possible. On the other side of Tenerife there is a tiny village called Almáciga. In its chapel is housed Nuestra Señora de Begoña, also known as the Virgin of the Bottle, a statue with a special history: On 8/27/1948 a group of young pilgrims to Santiago de Compostella in Northern Spain threw a bottle into the sea. It contained a holy card of this Madonna and the following message: “We the undersigned 35 pilgrims from Bilboa greet whomever may find this message and pray the Lord that we may meet them in Heaven.” Eight months later, on 4/29/1949, the bottle washed up intact on a beach near Almáciga. One auspicious thing led to another and soon it was decided that Our Lady of Begoña wanted a copy of herself in this corner of the world.
So who knows, if a bottle can travel more than a thousand sea miles and wash up unbroken on a beach surrounded by big rocks, the Virgin of Candelaria could have come from very far indeed.
Here is how her legend goes: Once upon a time there were two shepherds who used to lock their livestock in a cave at the end of the day. One day the animals refused to go in and seemed scared. Looking around to see what upset them, the shepherds saw the statue of Our Lady near the mouth of the cave on the edge of the water. They thought she was a normal living woman, and since men weren’t allowed to talk to or approach women outside of settlements (a historical fact), they motioned to her to go away. When she didn’t respond, one of the shepherds decided to throw rocks at her. Immediately his arm became paralyzed. The other man became angry and pulled his knife on the Virgin, but it only cut himself. At that they fled in fear to the palace of the king to report these strange happenings. The king and his council went to the cave at once. Since nobody dared to touch Our Lady, the king ordered the two shepherds who had already been injured by the Mother to pick up the statue and bring her to his palace. The moment they touched her with a peaceful intention, they were healed. Now the king understood that this woman was a benevolent supernatural thing and he decided to carry her himself. However, after a little while he had to ask for help because she was too heavy to carry alone. That’s why today there is a big cross at the place where the Virgin was found and at the place where the king had to ask for help there is a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Perpetual Help, another famous icon of the Blessed Mother.
The Virgin of Candelaria was brought to a cave near the palace and worshipped as an unknown goddess. After some time a certain youngster called Anton recognized who she really was. He had been converted while enslaved by Spaniards and then escaped home to his island. Now he taught the king and his court the Christian faith. Once they got to know the “Mother of the Sustainer of Heaven and Earth,” they moved her to another cave near the sea for public veneration.
The now enclosed Cueva de San Blas (left) and the basilica (right) Foto: Ella Rozett
Interior of the Cave of St. Blaise with copy of the Black Madonna. Foto: Ella Rozett
The statue once was stolen by Spaniards, but they returned her after a plague broke out that was felt to be a punishment for this sacrilegious robbery. In 1826, an unusually high tide washed Our Lady back out to sea and she was lost. The present statue was carved to replace the original. The Virgin of Candelaria was officially declared Patroness of the Canary Islands in 1867 and canonically crowned in 1889.⁷
Many faithful still go on pilgrimage to the Virgin of Candelaria. Especially around August 15th, the feast day of the assumption of the Virgin into Heaven, it is customary for college students and families to spend a day or two hiking to their Mother. They are rewarded by great processions and festivities reenacting the legend of the Black Madonna.
Footnotes:
1. Jonas Perez Camacho: “Guanches: Mito y Realidad”, Turquesa Ediciones, Santa Cruz de Tenerife: 2018
2. Ibid. p. 37
3. Ibid. p. 48-9
4. Ibid. p. 58
5. Ibid. p.86
6. Ibid. p. 58
7. Virgen de la Candelaria . For more information see Spanish Wikipedia article on Virgen de la Candelaria (Islas Canarias)