Candles

Our Lady of the Snows Patron Saint of The island of La Palma Card Medal and Chain


Regular price $ 5.99

the laminated card and the silver plated medal are blessed by His Holiness during mass at The Vatican - 

the chain is stainless steel


Nuestra Señora la Virgen de las Nieves is a Marian dedication that is worshiped in the Royal Insular Sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de las Nieves , located in the municipality of Santa Cruz de La Palma ( Canary Islands , Spain ). The Virgen de las Nieves is the patron saint of the island of La Palma .


It is currently the oldest Marian image in the Canary Islands , and the second oldest invocation in the archipelago, after the Virgin of Candelaria ( Patroness of the Canary Islands ) in Tenerife . Since the Virgen de las Nieves came to be venerated by the ancient Benahoritas (aboriginal palmeros).  It is believed that the image could possibly have reached La Palma either as the remains of a shipwreck or introduced by some Mallorcan missionaries who were in the Canary Islands before the conquest . The image was venerated by the aborigines in the place known as Morro de Las Nieves next to the current Royal Insular Sanctuary.

The legend says that the aboriginal king Bentacayse was taken by the Christian missions (which were trying to evangelize the island) to where his ancestors had deposited the image of the Virgin, for whom he felt intimate devotion. King Bentacayse thanked the Virgin and exclaimed: " Have Ife " (which in the Guanche language means white mountain, from the same root comes the name " Tenerife "), and since then the Virgin (until that moment called Santa María de La Palma) is invoked as "Our Lady the Virgin of the Snows ". 

After the conquest, a hermitage would be built in the place, the germ of the current Royal Sanctuary. However, the cult of Las Nieves did not take root in the popular mentality of La Palma until the first half of the seventeenth century, coinciding with the beginning of the descents to Santa Cruz de La Palma and the miracle during the eruption of the San Martín Volcano in 1646 . Until that moment, Santa Águeda was the main devotion of the island.

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