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327:. No historical data has been found that certify how this Flemish painting arrived in the New World. It is possible that Spanish Dominican friars coming to Puerto Rico took it along with them on their trip to their first convent in Old San Juan. It is also possible that the first Spanish settlers (Juan Ponce de León with others), or even the first anonymous Franciscan friars who came to the New World, may have carried it on board.
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183:, and carried candles or torches in their hands. The painting of Our Lady of Bethlehem was carried through the city to ask God for help. According to this legend the invading army, frightened by such imposing sight, decided to withdraw and not attack the city. Today in the Caleta de San Juan, next to the ancient wall and facing the
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attributed the protection of the city to Our Lady of
Bethlehem. A painting meant to be a votive offering gives witness to the fact that inhabitants began to consider Our Lady as the "Protectora de la ciudad", or "Guardian of the City." He made many reproductions of the original Our Lady of Bethlehem,
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A second legend identifies this site as the location where the Three Kings visited the Holy Family, and presented their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the Divine Child. A tradition going back to the 7th century, located at this site the burial place of the innocent victims killed by Herod
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According to
Franciscan, Brother Lawrence, an American who oversees the grotto and chapel for the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, the grotto is at least 2,000 years old. Early Christians came to pray here, but the first structure was built around 385. Known in Arabic as “Magharet el Saiyidee”
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The image is painted on a wooden canvas. It measures 37.2 cm by 65 cm. The woman in the painting, the Virgin Mary, is medium-sized, and has some color on her face, lose hair, rays around the head, and eyes gazing upon the Child in swaddling clothes. She has one of her breasts uncovered,
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in front of the image, praying to God for Church intentions. He asked to place a copy in Santos Ángeles
Custodios parish, in Yabucoa, and commended artist De La Espada to carve a wooden image that is located in the main altar of San Isidro Labrador's parish, in Sabana Grande.
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with small drops of milk falling towards the Child's lips. He reclines in his mother's arms, reciprocating the gaze of the mother. The Virgin Mary is wearing a blue blouse (not black), and a dark red or crimson mantle. Behind her, a dark grove of trees looks like a mountain.
304:(1545–1563), the representations of the "Virgin of Milk" were popular in Flanders. Rogier Van der Weyden, presumed creator or inspirer of Puerto Rican "Lady of Bethlehem", was a Flemish painter of fame and prestige in the 15th century. In 1435 he left his home town of
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of Old San Juan (the old St. Thomas Church of the
Dominicans) in 1972. A reproduction was made in Belgium and presented to the people of Puerto Rico on January 3, 2012. At the same date, the Angelical Confraternity of Our Lady of Bethlehem was restored.
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Towards 1864, priest Ven. Jerónimo Usera y Alarcón wrote a Noveen to Our Lady of
Bethlehem. In the prologue he gave witness to the courage of the men and women who took part in the Siege of 1797, and called her Fellow Citizen of all Puerto Ricans.
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distributed oil or milk among pilgrims in many countries. It is very likely that this famous shrine of
Saydnaya, which was a pilgrimage place for Christians of the East and West, is the source (or one of the major sources) of this artistic theme.
85:, before their flight to Egypt. While there, the Virgin Mary nursed her holy Child. Some drops of milk sprinkled the walls, changing to white the color of the stone. The site is venerated by both Christians and Muslims.
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According to tradition, during the
English invasion of 1598, and Dutch invasion of 1625, the painting was hidden and later found. In 1714, a copy was placed in the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist (
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of
Priscilla, in Rome, a 2nd-century pictorial representation of the Virgin Mary may be found. Most likely it is a breastfeeding Virgin. There are other symbols referring to milk in the catacombs.
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The
Devotion to Our Lady of the Milk requests husbands and wives to pray together the third of the joyful mysteries of the rosary, meditating on the Nativity of the Lord.
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The painting appeared next to a fountain, in the place where the future
Dominican convent in San Juan would be founded, sometime between 1511 and 1522.
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There is also a Shrine of Our Lady of "La Leche y Buen Parto" (Spanish for “Our Lady of the Milk and Happy Delivery”) in St. Augustine, Florida.
89:(The Grotto of Our Lady), the grotto, hollowed out of limestone, has become a place of pilgrimage for couples hoping to conceive a child.
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499:"Para tratar sobre la privación de los Altares de N.S. de Belén y Altagracia; y sobre lo acaecido en la Procesión del Viernes Santo",
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271:, which means: "This oil flowed from the breast of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, sculpted in wood. It took in a place gentiles call
187:, there is a sculpture called "La Rogativa" or "The Public Petition," which commemorates this chapter in the history of Puerto Rico.
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to settle in Brussels, where he was appointed premier painter of the city. None of the paintings attributed to him are signed.
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Hoc oleum ex ubere Genitris Dei Virginia Mariae emanavit in loco, qui Sardinia vocatur, ubi genitilitas est, ex imagine lignea
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El obispo Juan Alejo de Arizmendi ante el proceso revolucionario y el inicio de la emancipación de América Latina y el Caribe
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According to tradition, the Milk Grotto, not far from Bethlehem, is the site where the Holy Family took refuge during the
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Voces de la cultura. Testimonios sobre personajes, cultura, instituciones y eventos históricos en Puerto Rico y el Caribe
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300:, early Flemish painters produced numerous images of Mary. At the end of the 15th and 16th centuries, and up until the
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Novena a la Milagrosa Imagen de Nuestra Señora de Belén", Llamada comúnmente "La Aparecida" de San Juan de Puerto Rico
114:. Those converting to Christianity were given a mixture of milk and honey to drink, which in the early churches of
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Attraction for his art was not limited to the region of Brussels. He received orders from distant regions such as
176:, bishop Juan Bautista Zengotita gave orders for daily public prayer, to be held in parishes of the city.
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to Saydnaya, probably in the 11th century. Even after the 14th century, it still gave oil or milk.
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Puerto Rican website dedicated to the painting Our Lady of Bethlehem and its history (in Spanish).
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267:, next to a wooden pictorial representation of the Virgin, there was an inscription in Latin:
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According to Cayetano Coll y Toste's legend, participants, mainly women, sang songs and
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Sudilovsky, Judith. "Bethlehem's Milk Grotto brings faith, hope and sometimes babies",
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some of which are to be found in Old San Juan's National Gallery and the museum of the
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447:, Vol I, 1508–1700, Imprenta “Arte y cine”, Dominican Republic 1948, p. 298-299.
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Delgado Mercado, Osiris, "Campeche, el primer gran pintor puertorriqueño", in
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did not last long, but this tradition is visible in artistic representations.
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Coll y Toste, Cayetano, "La Virgen de Belén" and "Las once mil vírgenes",
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The Master of Flémalle and Rogier van der Weyden. The Flemish Primitives
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Rodríguez, Jorge, "Aparecen nuevas obras de Campeche, Oller y Albizu",
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José Campeche. El concepto invención y fuentes formativas de su arte
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vigils. Milk with honey symbolized the union of the two natures in
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Representations of the Virgin Mary in Flanders and the Netherlands
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Copy of the original painting, venerated today in Puerto Rico.
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Norbert Ubarri, Miguel, "La Virgen de Belén, ¿dónde está?",
384:""The Church on the "Milk Grotto", Custodia Terrae Sanctae"
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The tradition of milk dates back to the first centuries of
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Responding to the devotion and worship of the Virgin in
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The original Our Lady of Bethlehem disappeared from
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494:Maria. Iconografía de la Virgen en el arte español
418:Maria. Iconografía de la Virgen en el arte español
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366:"The Milk Grotto Church Heals Infertile Couples"
241:In the church of the Chilandari Monastery in
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501:Actas del Cabildo Catedral
496:, Plus-Ultra, Madrid 1946.
370:National Catholic Register
197:Universidad de Puerto Rico
174:Siege of Abercromby (1797)
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27:Flemish-style oil painting
457:Delgado Mercado, Osiris,
443:Cuesta Mendoza, Antonio,
439:Leyendas puertorriqueñas.
83:Massacre of the Innocents
403:info.franciscanmedia.org
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255:Panagia Galaktotrophusa.
478:Rodríguez León, Mario,
230:Notable representations
203:Juan Alejo de Arizmendi
69:Origin of the tradition
468:, Peters, Leuven 1967.
416:Trens, Manuel (1946).
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209:to those who said a
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251:Byzantine
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211:Hail Mary
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61:painter,
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190:Painter
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