Mexican Religious Artwork
and Collectors Items

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Saint Francis Nicho Saint Francis of Assisi, known in Spanish as San Francisco, or affectionately as "San Pancho", was very important in Mexico in former times because of the role of Franciscan monks in the mission system that was set up as part of the colonizations efferts of the Spanish. He is famous for his love of animals, and in this hand carved and hand painted statue, set in a traditionaly Mexican nicho, or portable shrine, he has a happy looking bird pirched and singing on a dish he has in his hands. Since these are hand made, they all look just a little different one from the other, but they all have the same elements and details.

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San Lázaro This statue is much larger than the ones you see above. It is thirteen inches high and very sturdy. Made of super hard acrylic resin mixed with ground bone, this is the material that is often refered to simply as "bone". San Lázaro is always shown with one or two dogs at his side. This is because the San Lázaro that is worshipped in Cuba is a mixture of the two San Lázaros that we know from the Bible. The actually portay one of them with the image of the other. The San Lázaro who is actually a saint was never a begger. In fact, he was probably rather rich. But the one that is depicted in works like this is actually the Lazarus mentioned by Jesus in one of his parables, who was a begger who was covered with sores, and it is said the dogs licked his wounds. The dogs, then, are seen as comforters, since they were actually alleviating his pain by doing this. So San Lázaro, and his dogs also, are seen as relievers of pain and suffering.

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Virgen de Caridad del Cobre The Virgin of Caridad del Cobre was first revealed to Juan de Hoyos, Rodrigo de Hoyos, and Juan Moreno, known as "los tres Juanes", in 1604, in a bay known as Bahía de Nipe, on the coast of Cuba. They were out on the bay in a small row boat, when a storm arose and nearly swamped the boat. They prayed to the Virgin to save them, and the Virgin of Caridad del Cobre appeared to them and calmed the waters, and they were saved. She was the Virgin of Caridad, or the Virgin of Charity, and she had a shrine in Spain already where she was well known, but her appearance in Cuba marked a new era for this Virgin. She was eventually moved to another location in Cuba called Cobre, because of the copper mine that was near there ("cobre" means "copper" in Spanish). Caridad del Cobre is probably the most important figure in the Cuban sect of Santeria. She is seen as the representative of the African goddess Ochum (or Ochun, as it is sometimes spelled), the goddess of love. Caridad del Cobre is also the patron saint of Cuba.

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The Virgin of Regla The Virgin of Regla is actually named for a seaport in Spain, the city of Regla, Spain. There is an image of the Virgin Mary there known as the Virgen de Regla. Another city was founded on the same bay as he City of Havana, Cuba, and it was named Regla, and so the patron of this city was also the same Virgen de Regla. Later on, the slaves in Cuba who were followers of the Lukumi religion of Nigeria adopted the Virgin of Regla as the surrogate for the African goddess Yemaya. It may be that the original Virgen de Regla actually was, originally, an African goddess who had been adopted into Christianity by way of Catholic suncretism, and then, ironically, she was transformed back into an African goddess by way of the syncretism of Cuban Santeria. Here is a picture of one of the original images of the Virgin of Regla from Spain. Yemaya is called the great because she is the Mother of many of the Orishas.