Lima – Thousands of Lima residents participated on the weekend in the Lord of Miracles procession through the historic center of the Peruvian capital and attended a Mass in the basilica here.
After the liturgy, religious authorities – for the first time in 355 years – on Saturday allowed worshippers of the Lord of Miracles to view the image for two hours inside the cathedral.
Then, the “Brown Christ” image was taken out on its portable platform and carried through the streets in the first of the traditional processions it will make during October, when Lima’s churches are adorned with the colors of purple and white.
The annual procession of the Lord of Miracles is one of South America’s largest religious festivals, originating in 1661, when a black slave painted the image of a brown-skinned Christ on the walls of a humble house in what was then the neighborhood of Pachacamilla on the outskirts of Lima.
The image remained intact after a tidal wave destroyed the capital of the then-Viceroyalty of Peru on Oct. 20, 1687, and that day was when the city’s survivors held the first Lord of Miracles procession.
Since then, the brown-skinned Christ has been taken out each October through the streets of Lima accompanied by thousands of residents of all ages outfitted in purple shawls and moving through the streets on their knees hoping to be blessed with a miracle.
Peruvian immigrants in Argentina, Chile, Spain and the United States also hold Lord of Miracles processions where they practice the culinary customs that accompany the religious rite, including the preparation of purple pudding made with corn starch, sugar and honey and Doña Pepa “turrones” or candies.
Peruvian historian Maria Rostworowski says that the deepseated cult of the Lord of Miracles stems from the pre-Hispanic god known as Pachacamac (“he who moves the earth,” in the Quechua Indian language), who for the ancient Peruvians was the “Lord of Earthquakes.”
According to the historian, the devotion to the Lord of Miracles symbolically sums up the racial composition in Peru which is a combination of an indigenous foundation, a white relatively well-to-do class, people of mixed blood known as “cholos” and blacks, who came to the country as slaves in the 17th century.
