Auxiliary Bishop Tomas Gonzalez of San Juan, Puerto Rico, will serve as principal celebrant and homilist of this year’s Our Lady of Providence Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.   

 The Mass is scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 15 at 4 p.m. Our Lady of Providence (Nuestra Señora de la Divina Providencia) is the patroness of Puerto Rico. Her feast day is Nov. 19.    

“This year marks 44 years since the first (Providence) Mass celebrated in the cathedral,” Juan A. Sotomayor, Jr., a lead lay organizer, told The Good Newsroom via email. “To commemorate this event in our history, His Excellency Bishop Tomas Gonzalez, auxiliary bishop of San Juan, Puerto Rico, will be the principal celebrant of the Mass.” 

Bond of faith  

“His presence strengthens the bond of faith that exists between the Church of Puerto Rico and our Archdiocese of New York – one Church united in devotion to the Virgin Mother of Divine Providence,” Sotomayor added. 

On Nov. 19, 1969, Pope Paul VI declared Our Lady of Divine Providence the patroness of Puerto Rico, choosing that date because it is also the day Puerto Rico was discovered by European explorers.      

The original image of Our Lady of the Divine Providence was a 16th-century oil painting by Italian painter Scipione Pulzone, titled “Divinae Providentiae,” which depicted the Virgin Mary cradling a sleeping infant Jesus. Devotion to Our Lady of Divine Providence originated in Italy and spread to France and Spain. The devotion was brought to Puerto Rico in the early 1850s by the Servite Order.  

La Purisima, Nicaragua  

The annual Mass in honor of La Inmaculada Concepción de María – La Purisima (Immaculate Conception of Mary – The Purest) is scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 29, 4 p.m., at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Auxiliary Bishop Pedro Bismarck Chau of Newark will serve as principal celebrant and homilist. Bishop Chau was born in Nicaragua.  

“On Nov. 29, we will celebrate 30 years of holding Holy Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral for our Nicaraguan community. For this occasion, we will be joined by Auxiliary Bishop Chau, the first Nicaraguan bishop in the United States,” said Fr. Henry Silva, born in Nicaragua and chaplain of the Nicaraguan community in the Archdiocese of New York. Fr. Silva also serves as parochial assistant at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, West 142nd Street, Manhattan.  

Under the La Purisima title, Mary is the patroness of Nicaragua; the feast day is December 8, coinciding with the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. The devotions begin with novena gatherings nine days before the feast day, and the Mass allows the faithful to show their gratitude for Our Lady’s intercession.  

The festivities in Nicaragua have traditionally included Catholic families creating altars and offering gifts, and the faithful processing through the streets. However, at present, public expressions of the faith in Nicaragua remain banned in many places and under strict regulations in others. 

This title of Mary is associated with a carved wooden image and is venerated by the Nicaraguan faithful. They trace the image’s origins to formerly being owned by St. Teresa of Avila and later brought from Spain to Nicaragua in the mid-16th century by her brother Rodrigo Ahumada.