Pasado y presente de la devoción a la Virgen del Carmen en Chile: la imagen de la Parroquia El Sagrario

The National Conservation and Restoration Center created an interdisciplinary team to draft a proposal for the restoration of the image of the Virgen del Carmen of El Sagrario Parish. Worship of this religious image, in addition to its spiritual content, has an historical basis that is consistent with its followers’ practices. My proposal is to outline the historical background that has justified this restoration. As an image that is actively worshipped, its historical background refers not only to the image itself but also to its devotional practices – in other words, the specific behaviour of the faithful when expressing their devotion through varying manifestations of worship. It intends to show how the sculpture has lived through time, with and within the community and the nation, in different socio-political and economic contexts of our history. This has generated different processes of assigning a new meaning to the image itself and which is part of our cultural tradition.
Although the object of undeniable devotion during the Colonial period, it was not until the beginning of the 19th century when certain historical events started to play an important role in transforming the Virgen del Carmen as an element of our national identity. Of all the events, the most relevant were the wars of Independence and the Pacific. Over time, the course of events led the sculpture of El Sagrario to be crowned, in 1926, as the “Queen of Chile”, a year after the new Constitution, separating Church and State, was passed. This phenomenon can be explained by a deeply-rooted religious sentiment in the population – for example, it was notoriously present in the people and soldiers during times of war and other difficulties, as a cultural component transmitted from generation to generation.