The Blessed Virgin of Chapi (), formally Our Lady of the Candlemas of Chapi () and popularly called "Mamita de Chapi", is a Catholic devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary as the patron saint of both the city and region of Arequipa, in southern Peru. Her sanctuary stands in the Chapi Valley in Polobaya District, roughly 60 kilometres south of the city of Arequipa, and is one of the most visited Marian shrines in Peru.
History According to devotional and archival accounts, an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary under the invocation of the Virgin of Candelaria was venerated in the area of Chapi by the 17th or 18th centuries depending on the source, with records of the valley appearing in the repartimiento of Pocsi District by 1655.
Tradition holds that the image was originally kept near Churajón or in the settlement of Accahua before a catastrophic earthquake, associated with the 1600 eruption of Huaynaputina, destroyed the settlement and forced surviving residents to relocate, carrying the image with them. Around 1743, a royal order requiring residents to abandon land needed for irrigation works prompted further relocation of the image into the Chapi valley. Popular accounts from this period also describe a devotee locating a water source near the settlement after praying to the image, an event still cited in local retellings of the shrine's founding.
In 1793, a parish priest reportedly ordered the image moved to the nearby town of Sogay. According to tradition, a sudden storm halted the procession before it could proceed, an event popularly interpreted as the Virgin's wish to remain at Chapi; this episode is commonly cited as the origin of the shrine's name, said to derive from Quechua phrases such as "Ch'aypi, Ch'aypi" ("There, in that place").
An 1868 earthquake buried the original thatched-roof chapel, though the image itself was reportedly undamaged. The sanctuary suffered further damage from a fire on 3 May 1921 and an earthquake eight days later. In 1876, the Archdiocese of Arequipa formally established 1 May as the central feast day for the devotion to the Virgin of Chapi.
On 2 February 1985, Pope John Paul II visited the city of Arequipa to canonically crown the Virgin of Chapi. The field where the coronation took place would eventually become the site of the Estadio Monumental Virgen de Chapi.
The Archbishop of Arequipa, Fernando Vargas Ruiz de Somocurcio issued a decree declaring the shrine an Archdiocesan Sanctuary on 28 April 1986.
The temple built during the 20th century was seriously damaged by the 2001 southern Peru earthquake on 23 June 2001 and subsequently demolished in early 2002; a reconstruction commission was formed by the Archdiocese in 2003.
In 2012, the Peruvian Ministry of Culture designated "the Festivity of the Blessed Virgin of the Candelaria of Chapi, Arequipa" (la Festividad de la Santísima Virgen de la Candelaria de Chapi, Arequipa) as Cultural Heritage of the Nation.
Sanctuary and pilgrimage
The Sanctuary of Chapi sits at approximately 2,420 metres above sea level in a desert setting in Polobaya District. Each year between 29 April and 2 May, the sanctuary draws an estimated 250,000 pilgrims, with many walking through the night to reach the shrine. On the central feast day of 1 May, the statue is carried in a procession lasting about ninety minutes following Mass, and pilgrims traditionally leave ex-votos in gratitude for favours attributed to the Virgin.
See also Estadio Monumental Virgen de Chapi List of canonically crowned images Roman Catholicism in Peru Lord of Miracles, Lima Virgin of Candelaria
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