The Basilica of Esquipulas or Cathedral Basilica of the Black Christ of Esquipulas ( Spanish: ''Basílica de Esquipulas'' or ''Catedral Basílica del Cristo Negro de Esquipulas'') is a

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

church in the city of

Esquipulas Esquipulas (Nahuatl: Isquitzuchil, "place where flowers abound"), officially Municipality of Esquipulas, whose original name was Yzquipulas, is a town, with a population of 18,667 (2018 census), and a municipality located in the department of Chi ...

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

, named after the image of the Black Christ of Esquipulas which it houses. It is the largest

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

church in Central America and southern Mexico and the only one in America with four bell-towers. It has the status of

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

minor basilica In the Catholic Church, a basilica is a designation given by the Pope to a church building. Basilicas are distinguished for ceremonial purposes from other churches. The building need not be a basilica in the architectural sense (a rectangular ...

and Catholic sanctuary.

History

The statue of the Black Christ (El Cristo Negro) was commissioned by Spanish conquistadors and carved in 1594 by Quirio Cataño in Antigua and installed in the church in 1595. The history of the Basilica begins in 1735, when a priest named Father Pedro Pardo de Figueroa experienced a miraculous cure after praying before the statue. When he became Archbishop of Guatemala, he commissioned a basilica to shelter the statue. The church was completed in 1759. It is visited by about 4.5 million pilgrims annually, including 1.5 million in the days leading up to its patronal festival on 15 January and the festival on 9 March which marks the date of the image's arrival in the city in 1595. On a visit in 1840, the anthropologist John Lloyd Stephens described the church as the town's "only object of interest". The church was promoted to cathedral status by

pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...

in 1956 as the seat of the new Territorial Prelature of Santo Cristo de Esquípulas, whose first prelate

Mariano Rossell y Arellano Mariano Rossell y Arellano (18 July 1894, Esquipulas, Guatemala - 10 December 1964, Guatemala City) was a Guatemalan Roman Catholic clergyman. He was the fifteenth archbishop of Guatemala from 1939 to 1964 and the first Prelate Nullius of Esqui ...

(the senior archbishop of Guatemala) sought to set up a

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

monastery attached to the cathedral to care for it - this was founded in 1959 by three monks sent from St. Joseph Benedictine Abbey in

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

. He also successfully petitioned

pope John XXIII Pope John XXIII ( la, Ioannes XXIII; it, Giovanni XXIII; born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, ; 25 November 18813 June 1963) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 28 October 1958 until his death in June 19 ...

to promote the church to minor basilica status in 1961. It was visited on 6 February 1996 by

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

during his second Apostolic Visit to Guatemala to mark the four-hundredth anniversary of the veneration of the Black Christ.

References

External links

* {{coord, 14.5618, N, 89.3509, W, display=title Roman Catholic cathedrals in Guatemala Basilica churches in Guatemala Catholic Church in Guatemala Roman Catholic shrines in Guatemala