Yesterday, Tuesday 24 September, thousands of Dominicans flocked to the Catholic churches in the capital and across the country to celebrate the festival of the Virgin of Mercedes, the country’s patron saint since the colonization of the Americas.
Most went to the national sanctuary at Santo Cerro, beginning to arrive late Monday 23 September and staying for the first mass at 5am in the morning on Tuesday.
Las Mercedes church in Santo Domingo’s Colonial Zone celebrated with a procession with an image of the Virgin through several streets in the historic center, headed by Monsignor Nicolas de Jesus Cardinal Lopez Rodriguez.
Three masses in honor of the Virgin, which Catholics are obliged to attend, were celebrated at most Catholic churches in the capital and Santiago.
Father Radhames Lara from Santo Cerro parish said that the turnout of pilgrims this year far outnumbered previous years and thanked the Ministry of Tourism for the recent remodeling of the sanctuary. Its original construction started on 7 August 1880 and it was completed 17 years later.
www.listindiario.com/la-republica/2013/9/24/293331/Miles-de-fieles-abarrotan-templos-y-santuario-de-Las-Mercedes