Copacabana: Mary-Pachamama

Origin

Copacabana is located near Lake Titicaca, in a mountain region of Bolivia. The grandson of an Inca ruler, who was gifted for sculpting and had a deep love for the Virgin, prayed one day to be inspired to make a beautiful sculpture in her honor.

In 1582 he made a 40 inch statue of Our Lady, borrowing from his Indian culture and the forms that were familiar to him, representing Mary as a Nusta or Inca princess. She was attractive, and became so beloved that the Indians replaced their cult to « Mother Earth » by the devotion to Holy Mary Pachamama, the Mother of the Man-God. (3)

The Pachamama

The "Pacha Mama," which in Quechua means the Mother-Earth of men, beasts and plants, was and still is one of the greatest Andean deities. Far anterior to the Incas, she dominates all the beliefs and naturalistic religions of ancient Peru, and inspires all agrarian rituals. She is invoked as the "patroness" of all that exists on or under the earth.

"Indeed your ancestors, when paying their tribute to the earth - Mama Pacha - were only confessing God's goodness and his beneficial presence that gave them their food through the cultivation of their fields."

(John Paul II, Liturgy of the Word in Cuzco, February 3, 1985)

The Incas represented Mary by a conopa, a small statue richly dressed with little vestments woven by women. They spoke to her familiarly, and presented to her savory homemade dishes. In July, they would celebrate her purification, and in August they would fast and walk with their heads hanging low while reciting short prayers. (1)

The Mother of God and the Pachamama-Mother Earth

In continuity with the Inca religion

Regarding the Inca cult of the « Mother-Earth, » the first missionaries tolerated a certain syncretism (1).

Today still, the Pacha Mama is celebrated everywhere in the Andes on May 3rd. Prayers are offered in churches to « Santa Maria Pachamama. »

This is an example of the tolerance, and even support, for a kind of syncretism, since the beginning of the Conquista. Understandably, the cult to the Pachamama reflects a sacral attitude, of man who recognizes himself to be a created being and manifests this belief through rituals.

This continuity between a natural religion and the Christian religion is quite normal. The Virgin Mary isn't removed from the Creation or nature. When God created the world, he had an aim, which was the Incarnation of his Son. Therefore God had also planned from all eternity to give a mother to his Son. Thus Mary is the goal of the Creation, its final cause, and what makes it good. And when Saint Irenaeus, in the 2^nd century, was evangelizing Gaul, he used to compare Mary to the « Virgin Land, » the mother of Christ and our mother. (4)

Differences with the Inca religion

Unlike the Incas, Christians do not bargain or pay a tribute to the « Mother Earth. » They pursue grace and trust. Furthermore, the kings are not divinized like the Inca used to do.

• The Andean peasant doesn't undertake anything without giving grace to the Pacha Mama: he offers her the tinka, a "payment to the earth," by pouring a few drops of chicha with the middle finger, or by burying under the foundations of a new house the dried-up fetus of a llama, which can be bought at any Indian market in replacement of the ancient animal sacrifices (1). Those rites can be interpreted as giving thanks to Creation and its Creator. But they can also be a bargaining deal to capture occult forces and control the source of life.
• On the contrary, the biblical faith has given up bargaining: it has on the contrary a covenantal attitude. Man prays but doesn't seek to steal divine power. Because she is a virgin, Mary is the expression of man's weakness and the fact that God can't be bought. And God raises the humble, fills the hungry, and offers his mercy to those who fear him.
• The Inca social structure is a castelike system which divinizes the supreme chief (2). In the Bible, the king is never divinized as with the Incas. The biblical Alliance is a solid departure from the Egyptian system where the pharaoh was divinized, and from the Cananean feudal system since the Bible teaches that God is the only King and that the earthly king is only his imperfect servant.

History of the pilgrimage to Copacabana

The Indians come on pilgrimage, from Peru and Bolivia.

Inside the shrine, a special altar is dedicated to Our Lady of the Candlestick (cf. Oruro).

The statue of Our Lady of Copacabana was crowned as Queen of the nation on August 2, 1925.

On November 4, 1968, she was proclaimed patroness of the Bolivian Navy.

We find churches dedicated to Our Lady of Copacabana in Lima, Rio de Janeiro, Panama, Madrid, and Rome. (3)

Famous visitors and social message

Saint Toribio de Mongrovejo (1538-1606, second archbishop of Lima) is the Patron of the Latino-American Episcopate. He is considered as the « protector of the natives » and the great organizer of the Church in South America. During his earthly life he often made the pilgrimage to Copacabana to ask for the strength to fight against racial discriminations, abuses from the civilian authorities, and for the defence of the Church's rights. (3)

John Paul II came in May 1988 and entrusted to Our Lady of Copacabana the whole Bolivian nation:

« Watch, Mother, with a particular tenderness, over rural families, who suffer from poverty; watch over the miners and the refugees, those without bread or work, the poorest and the most abandoned, so that they may experience your comfort and the solidarity of others. »

John Paul II also mentioned Copacabana in his Angelus of March 29, 1992, in Rome.

Feast day: May 3

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(1) [Lost link]

(2) https://www.abc-latina.com/civilisations/Inca.htm

(3) Attilio GALLI, Madre della Chiesa dei Cinque continenti, Ed. Segno, Udine, 1997, p. 885-891

(4) Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, III 18,7 I