Our Lady of Good Success (Spanish: ''Nuestra Señora de la Buena Suerte'') is a
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
Marian title associated with
Marian images located in the Spanish cities of
Granada and
Zaragoza
Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...
, the island of
La Gomera
La Gomera () is one of Spain's Canary Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. With an area of , it is the third smallest of the eight main islands of this archipelago. It belongs to the province of Santa Cruz de Tene ...
, and the region of
Catalonia
Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy.
Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the nort ...
. The seaside location of many of these images suggests that Spanish sailors would invoke Mary under this title specifically to petition for safe voyages.
Conflation with ''Buen Suceso''
Among English speakers, this title (''Buena Suerte'') is often confused with a similar title, ''Nuestra Señora del Buen Suceso'' (meaning
Our Lady of the Good Event
Our Lady of the Good Event (Spanish: ''Nuestra Señora del Buen Suceso'') is a Catholic Marian title in Spanish-speaking countries. It is often mistranslated as "Our Lady of Good Success" due to the superficial similarity between the Spanish word ...
), due to the superficial similarity between "success" in English and "suceso" in Spanish. The ''Buen Suceso'' title, however, refers specifically to the "good event" of the
Purification of Mary and the Presentation of Jesus.
References
{{Reflist
Good Success