Feast of Our Lady of Charity (Fiesta de la Virgen de la Caridad) at La Ermita

About this happenin

Every September 8, Miami's Cuban community keeps the feast of Our Lady of Charity, patroness of Cuba, at La Ermita, the National Shrine on Biscayne Bay in Coconut Grove. A nine-night novena leads up to it. On the eve and on the day, the image is set out on the Malecón by the water for veneration, with the church closed. The eve runs into an artistic Marian vigil and ends with Las Mañanitas to the Virgin at midnight. Late in the afternoon on the feast day the image leaves for the evening Solemn Mass, led by the Archbishop of Miami, and the shrine closes. That Mass has been held at the Miami-Dade Fair & Expo on Coral Way, after a procession of the archdiocese's apostolic movements. The image reached Miami on September 8, 1961, and 30,000 exiles filled Miami Stadium for Mass that night. Five years later to the day, Archbishop Carroll asked the exiles to build this shrine. Its altar's first stone holds earth from Cuba's provinces, fused with water from a raft on which fifteen people died fleeing the island.

More in September: 3 other Miami events.

Where

National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity (La Ermita de la Caridad) · 3609 S Miami Ave, Miami, FL 33133