Church of Our Lady of Regla
Small waterfront church sheltering a black Madonna honored as both a Catholic Virgin and the Yoruba sea goddess Yemaya.
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About this audio guide
The Church of Our Lady of Regla guide, on Havana's harbor at Regla, follows the small black wooden Virgin inside, said to have been carved in North Africa on Saint Augustine's order some fifteen centuries ago, through Vandal raids and the Moorish conquest of Spain before a copy of her crossed the Atlantic in the 1600s. It traces the church Bishop Espada built for her in 1805 and the feast day each September seventh, when Bata drums brought generations ago by enslaved Yoruba people call on Yemaya, mother of the sea, alongside the Virgin. Listen for the drums starting down by the water as devotees carry flowers and candles to the shore.
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