The annual Mass in honor of Our Lady of Nube is scheduled for Sunday, December 15, at 2 p.m. at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Our Lady of Nube is a devotional tradition in Ecuador.  

On Sunday, January 5, 2025, the annual Christ of Esquipulas Mass will be celebrated at 2 p.m. at the cathedral. Christ of Esquipulas (also called Lord of Esquipulas) is a Guatemalan devotional tradition.                          

“For the Ecuadorian community, it’s a reminder of the maternal concern they feel they receive from Mary, and how she is always very solicitous towards them when they request a divine favor,” Father Brian McWeeney, director of the Archdiocese of New York’s Ethnic Apostolate, told The Good Newsroom.               

Father McWeeney noted that each year the Our Lady of Nube Mass at the cathedral attracts many of the faithful from Church of the Assumption in Peekskill and the Church of St. Mary in Wappingers Falls – both of which have large populations of immigrants from Ecuador.

As for the Christ of Esquipulas Mass, the priest said, “The most wonderful thing about that Mass is that it is not only (celebrated) in Spanish, but there are three other languages, and all of those languages are utilized during the Mass. It shows the unity of the country.” The other three languages are indigenous to Guatemala.  

Father McWeeney noted that Guatemalan Catholics greatly appreciate the cathedral’s Esquipulas Mass, which allows them to be united in the faith, given the societal “trials and tribulations” their country has experienced over the decades.

Our Lady of Nube 

When Bishop Sancho de Andrade y Figueroa of Quito, Ecuador, was gravely ill, the local faithful made a prayer procession in late December 1696 with the image of Mary from the Church of Guapulo. On their way, the Blessed Mother appeared in the sky on a cloud (“nube” in Spanish) seen by about 500 people.

The bishop miraculously recovered his health; the Franciscan friars later founded a sanctuary in Azogues, known as the Santuario de la Virgen de la Nube. Now the Fiesta de la Virgen de la Nube takes place in Azogues every year on January 1. The veneration was also adopted by nuns in Lima, who brought the Marian devotion to Peru.

Christ of Esquipulas

The city of Esquipulas is located in southeast Guatemala. It is known for its large colonial church (the Basilica of Esquipulas), a popular pilgrimage center in Central America built in the 18th century to house the Black Christ figure of Jesus on the cross. The figure was commissioned by the Spanish conquistadors and first placed in a local church in 1595.

 The image was carved from dark wood in 1594, measuring around five feet tall. The main religious processions occur on January 15 and during Holy Week. Esquipulas is about 80 miles east of Guatemala City, with an elevation of over 3,000 feet.