Señor de Huanca
Señor de Huanca is a miraculous apparition of Christ in Calca , Peru. The pilgrimage site with an image of the apparition is located at an altitude of 3300 m on the slope of Mount Pachatusán (approx. 50 km from Cusco ). The day of the annual pilgrimage festival is September 14th.
Legend of the apparition
First and second apparitions
Legend has it that the "Señor de Huanca" appeared for the first time in May 1675. The indigenous Diego Quispe fled the Yanatín mine along the Vilcanota River in the direction of his hometown Chinchero , facing severe punishment . He hid from his persecutors in a cave known as "Huanca Rumi", where he prayed in fear of death. When night fell, he saw a bright light in the cave and in it the figure of a man clad only with a loincloth, bleeding from many wounds caused by lashes, whom he recognized and worshiped as Jesus. The apparition said that she intended this place as a sacred place of forgiveness and redemption and that he, Diego, should be her ambassador. The apparition of Christ asked Diego Quispe to return to his hometown, to teach the pastor to receive first communion and then to visit her again in this place. Diego promised this and then fell asleep praying, exhausted, hungry and overwhelmed with emotions. In the morning he was awakened by the apparition and was only able to break free from awe when he presented his silver necklace with a cross pendant to the apparition.
In June 1675 Diego Quispe returned with his family and the priest Urioste de la Borda, who also witnessed this apparition and worshiped it. The Colonel of the Mercedarian Order of Cusco, who owned the lands in which the cave was located, commissioned one of the "best painters of the Cuscensian-Flemish School" to paint the apparition as described by Diego Quispes [NB: one of the most famous painters of this school was named Diego Quispe Tito , 1611–1681]. He painted the second apparition on stone: Christ tied to a column with a rope, who bent down to pick up his clothes. The Mercedarians built a chapel in Huanca. The bishop Manuel de Mollinedo y Angulo , who was resident in Cuzco at the time of the incident, either had no knowledge of the incident, did not consider it important or treated it discreetly with respectful modesty. The church tolerated the local cult and the celebration of the sacred mystery held once a year in the chapel.
Third appearance
In July 1775, the wealthy mine owner Pedro Valero fell seriously ill in Cochabamba (Bolivia). Only a strange doctor, who called himself Emanuel, healed him with water within five days. The doctor did not accept any wages, but invited Pedro Valero to visit him at his home in Huanca near Cusco. After doing some business, Pedro Valero traveled to Cusco, where no one knew Huanca or the doctor. He finally got to know Huanca through some indigenous people who sold firewood from this area in his accommodation in San Blas. On September 14, 1778, Pedro Valero discovered the forgotten and overgrown chapel and recognized his savior, the "Señor de Huanca", in the portrait painted on the stone. He informed the Bishop of Cusco, Juan Manuel Moscoso y Peralta , who convened a commission to investigate the incidents. A pilgrimage to Huanca was made with great public interest and since 1779 the cult has been recognized and allowed as such.
Pre-Hispanic Sanctuary
It is possible that there was also a pre-Hispanic or Inca sanctuary at the site of today's pilgrimage site, because mountains and springs were often the subject of veneration in the Andes region. In 1571 the statesman and jurist Polo de Ondegardo described the many shrines which the Inca and the people of the Cusco Valley who were subjected to them worshiped within four (Peruvian) Spanish miles around the capital of the Inca Empire. According to Polo de Ondegardo, there were more than 330 sanctuaries known as Huacas along imaginary lines (the ceques ) that ran from the Coricancha sun temple in the center of the city . Many of them were springs where mainly mussels were sacrificed. Mountains, caves, and certain stone formations were also among them. The name of the mountain “Pachatusán” (4,860 m) means “He who supports the world” in Quechua. In addition, four watercourses arise in the immediate vicinity of today's pilgrimage site, the water of which is said to have been used for certain purposes. The water of the “Virgen Maria / La Mamacha” was used by pilgrims, “San Isidro Labrador” by arable farmers to bless their fields with it, “El Arcángel” to protect children from evil and to keep them out of the river of the “Demonio” Shamans who have been given special powers by higher powers.
Today's cult
Today the "Señor de Huanca" is the center of a large, mainly regional cult , comparable to that of the Señor de los Temblores in Cuzco and Señor Qoyllur Rit`i in Quispicanchi. In contrast to these, however, he is "inter-ethnic" in that the apparition of Christ, according to tradition, meant salvation from an emergency for both a poor indigenous Quechua and a rich Creole mine owner. His festival is celebrated on September 14th. Pilgrimages and visits to the shrine, for example to have newly purchased automobiles blessed, are also undertaken all year round.
Pilgrimages are an important part of today's religious practice in the Andean region. The collective events combine Christian and Andean elements - the cult of the "Señor de Huanca" is typical here: The usual symbolic acts include hiking to places that are difficult to access, the use of sources for rituals of purification and healing, the giving of votive pictures and small objects as sacrifices that symbolize a fulfilled or current wish or promise. Festive clothing, participation in processions, singing and dancing are common. Whether the colonial and current religious practice is a process of acculturation , the emergence of a secret religious parallel world or syncretism has been and is the subject of discussion.
literature
- Luis Guillermo Marquez Eyzaguirre: Huanka Rumi: historia de las apariciones del Señor de Huanca y de su celebre santuario , Tip. Americana, Cuzco 1936.
Web links
- senordehuanca.net website about history and miracles, created in thanks for requests fulfilled (in Spanish)
- festividad-del-senor-de-huanca-en-la-region-cusco Dates of the pilgrimage and a brief description of the legends (in Spanish)
- Photos from the 2013 Pilgrimage Festival (in Spanish)
- Short newspaper report on the 2011 pilgrimage (in Spanish)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Juan Pablo Luza, Jorge Alosilla Suárez: Señor de Huanca / Huanca. Breves apuntes sobre las apariciones del Señor y de su célebre Santuario , Corporación Gráfica Navarrette, Lima (no year, before 2010), no ISBN; see. also archived copy ( memento of the original dated February 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Polo de Ondegardo (1571): Relación de los adoratorios de los indios en los cuatro caminos que salan del Cuzco in: Informaciones acerca de la Religión y Gobierno de las Incas. 2.a Parte (= Coleccion de libros y documentos referentes a la Historia del Peru. Tomo IV.), Sanmarti y Ca., Lima 1917, pp. 3–43.
- ↑ José Luis Bleda Fernández: Una Motivación Misionera: El Señor de Huanca. In: Studia Missionalia, vol. 55, Rome 2006, pp. 310, 316.
- ↑ Manuel María Marzal (Ed.): El Rostro Indio de Dios. Mexico 1994, ISBN 968-85913-6-X , pp. 141f.
- ↑ Renata et al. Luis Millones: Calendario tradicional peruano. Fondo Editorial del Congreso del Perú, Lima 2003, ISBN 9972-880-27-9 , p. 176.
- ↑ Football player goes on a pilgrimage to thank for answered requests (2013): http://depor.pe/futbol-peruano/ramon-rodriguez-cienciano-peregrinacion-senor-huanca-noticia-909885
- ↑ Manuel M. Marzal: La Religón quechua actual. In: Religiones Andinas (= Enciclopedia Iberoamericana de Religiones 4), Editorial Trotta, Madrid 2005, ISBN 84-8164-711-X , p. 150.
- ↑ Kenneth R. Mills: Idolatry and its Enemies; Colonial Andean Religion and Extirpation, 1640-1750. Princeton Academic Press, Chichester 1997, ISBN 0-691-02979-2 , pp. 243-266.
