Regla of Little Havana: The Black Virgen of Miami

Black Virgins are a phenomenon found throughout the Christian world, both Eastern and Western. What are they? They are icons or statues of the Virgin Mary, usually with the Child Jesus, in which they appear with dark or completely black skin, and they are common in both Orthodox-majority countries and Roman Catholic ones.There are between 400 and 500 Black Virgins in Europe alone. It is believed that their dark color originated because early Christian iconographers, lacking sufficient models to depict the Lord and the Virgin Mary, drew inspiration from pre-Christian pagan deities that were represented with dark skin—a symbol of fertility and abundance. In this way, the Egyptian goddess Isis and her son Horus, who were depicted with dark skin, served as models for early Christian art.The Black Virgin of Regla came to Miami through a group of Cuban devotees who, in 1981, visited me at the Cathedral of St. George in Coral Gables, Florida, and insisted that the Black Virgin of Regla should have her own church in Miami, just as she does in Cuba, the place from which they had emigrated.Thus emerged the Black Virgin of Miami, Saint Mary of Regla, who today is the patroness of Little Havana—the area of the city with the highest concentration of Spanish-speaking Cubans, as well as people from Central and South America. They now have the Ermita de Regla, the National Shrine where their Black Virgin of Regla is visited and venerated. Read more