The annual Our Lady of Providence Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral is set for Sunday, November 17 at 4 p.m. Our Lady of Providence is the patroness of Puerto Rico, and her feast day is celebrated on November 19. Father Jorge L. Ramirez Quiles, Sch.P., pastor of the Church of St. Helena in the Bronx, will be the Mass celebrant.      

Two weeks later, on Sunday, December 1, the annual Mass in honor of La Inmaculada Concepción de María – La Purisima (Immaculate Conception of Mary – The Purest) – is scheduled for Sunday, December 1 at 4 p.m. The feast day is December 8, and under this title, Mary is the patroness of Nicaragua. The Mass celebrant will be Father Pedro Bismarck Chau, rector of the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, New Jersey.                               

“The Mass of Our Lady of the Divine Providence, the Patroness of Puerto Rico, is a shared love throughout the United States and the Caribbean where distance, language and different cultures come together to honor the mother of Jesus Christ, seeking her intercession for us and leading us to trust in God,” Wanda Vasquez, director of the Office of Hispanic Ministry, Archdiocese of New York, told The Good Newsroom via email last week.     

“The Mass of La Purisima, or The Purest One, celebrates the conception of the Blessed Mother or the Immaculate Conception of Mary; she is the patroness of Nicaragua. The devotions begin with novenas (novenarios) nine days before the feast day, and the Mass allows the faithful to show their gratitude for Our Lady’s intercession. All the Hispanic Liturgies are of importance to our Hispanic community in the Archdiocese of New York, where our faithful are welcomed to be able to express their Catholic traditions from their home countries freely,” Vasquez added. 

Our Lady of Providence

On November 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. 

Maria La Purisima 

The patroness of Nicaragua is the Immaculate Conception, also known as La Purísima in Nicaragua. The Immaculate Conception is celebrated with a nine-day prayer period, or novena,

and is the most popular feast day in the Central American country. The festivities include Catholic families creating altars and offering gifts, and the faithful making pilgrimages through the streets. La Purísima in Nicaragua takes place on December 8 and coincides with the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. 

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. Pope Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854, which officially recognized that the Virgin Mary was preserved from original sin at the moment of her conception.