Boat parade on Biscayne Bay in honor of La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre
Yesterday, a procession of boats cruised on Biscayne Bay in honor of La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre.
Boat procession honors revered Cuban image of Virgin Mary
As a prelude to the 50th anniversary celebration of the arrival in Miami of the statue of Our Lady of Charity, Cuba’s patron saint, a group of Catholic faithful took the image for a colorful maritime procession in Biscayne Bay on Sunday.
A dozen boats participated in the three-hour parade, dubbed “The Lady of Charity Blesses Miami,” which carried the statue to sites significant in the history of the city and of Cuban exiles.
The marine procession departed from the Our Lady of Charity shrine in Coconut Grove, and was highly symbolic because the original version of this depiction of the Virgin Mary was found floating in Nipe Bay in eastern Cuba almost 400 years ago, according to Catholic tradition.
“In the mind of a Cuban you cannot separate the Virgin and the ocean,” said Msgr. Agustín Román, founder of the shrine and retired auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Miami. “Through these waters we also remember the Cuban rafters who obtained their freedom and those who died seeking it,” he said.
On Sept. 8 South Florida’s Cuban Catholic community will celebrate a Mass in remembrance of what happened in 1961, when a replica of the image of Our Lady of Charity was smuggled from the island to Miami just in time to celebrate the Feast of the Virgin at the old Bobby Maduro stadium, a Mass attended by 30,000 Cuban exiles.
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