• Submitted by: manso
• Society
• 12 / 20 / 2010

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HAVANA – Cubans celebrated Friday the traditional pilgrimage to venerate St. Lazarus at the El Rincon sanctuary near Havana, where thousands of people go every year to make their votive offerings.

The Feast of St. Lazarus on Dec. 17 attracts clergy, payers of ex-votos, the Catholic faithful and practitioners of the Afro-Cuban religion of Santeria at El Rincon, some 30 kilometers from downtown Havana.

As is customary, most of the pilgrims make their way to the sanctuary carrying flowers and wearing purple clothing.

The “payers” of votive offerings of all ages either walk barefoot, on their knees or crawl along with some kind of weight on their backs.

St. Lazarus, to whom the faithful attribute all kinds of miracles, but chiefly cures or salvation, is the object of a devotion that combines the Catholic saint, the old beggar Lazarus from the Bible, with Babalu Aye, a Yoruba god of Santeria.

From the beginning of the month of December, the sanctuary at El Rincon begins to receive an increasing number of visits from the faithful, but the epitome of the pilgrimage begins on the eve of Dec. 17 and continues throughout that day.

This Friday hundreds of people gathered inside and around the church at El Rincon to hear the Mass officiated by Cuba’s Catholic primate, Cardinal Jaime Ortega, whose sermon stressed the virtues of mercy and solidarity.

During the Mass, dozens of people lined up outside to receive containers of the “holy water” of El Rincon, while others left their usual offerings of money, coffee, tobacco, purple flowers and candles at the corners of the church.

All along the road to the sanctuary, dozens of vendors organized a fair enlived with music to offer flowers, religious articles and even shoes and clothing. EFE
 
Source: www.laht.com/article.asp?CategoryId=14510&ArticleId=381822