The Catholic Feast of Our Lady of Providence is November 19.
Our Lady of Providence
Our Lady of Providence is a Marian devotion based on receiving divine help through prayer. Some associate it with the Biblical miracle where Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding feast of Cana.
The devotion began at the church of San Carlo ai Catinari in Rome, Italy, when a priest prayed for help to finish the church on a 1611 journey to Loreto where some traditions say the Virgin Mary lived (that’s impossible, but whatever). On his return, the funds were received. Thus began the devotion.
Mother of Divine Providence
Late Renaissance painter Scipione Pulzone painted “Mater Divinae Providentiae” around 1580. It shows the Virgin Mary cradling the baby Jesus.
The painting was given to the Clerics of St. Paul (Barnabites) and installed in the Chapel of the Mother of Divine Providence in the church of San Carlo ai Catinari in 1663. A copy of the painting was placed on the church’s main altar in 1732. It inspired great devotion. The painting looks surprisingly modern. This Marian tradition gained increasing acceptance over the years from the Church.
Pope Leo XIII crowned Our Lady of Providence in 1888. It’s interesting that African Diasporic religions also use the term crowned, meaning that a saint or orisha has chosen you.
What Does It Mean?
Some people think you can pray for something and receive it like an Amazon delivery. It doesn’t really work that way.
Many faiths see the power of prayer as a combination of divine intent and your own intent. As Benjamin Franklin famously quoted in 1736, “God helps those who help themselves.” Prayer helps to focus intention. When you pray, at least one person is listening. Think about it.
This is the idea behind Our Lady of Providence, that God will help you, if you help yourself.
Our Lady of Providence In Puerto Rico
The devotion followed Catholic monks around the world. It was brought to Puerto Rico in the 1850s. In 1969, Pope Paul VI declared Our Lady of Providence to be the Patroness of Puerto Rico.
There is another possible explanation for this veneration. Colonizers followed the trade winds and Atlantic North Equatorial Current from West Africa to the Caribbean. Once you enter those currents, you come out on the other side of the ocean, dead or alive. The evil Columbus was not a great navigator, he was just lucky. Depending on where they turned west, winds and currents brought sailors directly to the Lesser Antilles islands, Puerto Rico, or the Bahamas. Puerto Rico was the first reliable water stop. If you made it there, you survived the journey. That was surely an answer to many sailor’s prayers.
The Feast of Our Lady of Providence marks the traditional start of Puerto Rico’s Christmas and Holiday Season ~ the world’s longest. Although today because of American influence, Puerto Rico’s Christmas and Holiday Season really gets going right after the American celebration of Thanksgiving, a week or so later.
Hurricane Maria
Hurricane Maria caused tremendous damage to Puerto Rico in 2017. Americans complain when a hurricane knocks out power for a few days. They don’t understand that Hurricane Maria knocked Puerto Rico back into the Stone Age overnight. There was no electricity, gas, telephone, gasoline, police, fire, rescue, ambulances, government, nothing. The beautiful island turned brown, and the people were left to fend for themselves, not just for a few days, but for months.
The U.S. government at the time intentionally blocked FEMA from providing normal emergency services to Puerto Ricans. Even two years after Hurricane Maria, over 10,000 Puerto Ricans were still living under the shelter of blue tarps.
Puerto Ricans have always gone to the mountains and set up a house. These are the Jíbaros, the traditional mountain farmers of Puerto Rico. They don’t have title papers to the land, but they have been there for generations. Without papers, FEMA wouldn’t help with reconstruction.
The faithful will ask, “what does it mean?” After the U.S. Federal Government failed to protect its citizens in Puerto Rico, perhaps the meaning is that we have to help ourselves. In doing so, we will be blessed by Our Lady of Providence.
In New York City
There is usually an Our Lady of Providence Mass in Spanish at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in Midtown East, Manhattan around her feast day.