Recent research and findings

at the Holy Relic.

The image that Our Lady of Coromoto left in the hands of the Cacique of the Coromoto Indians on September 8, 1652, measures 27 millimeters high by 22 millimeters wide and is enclosed in an oval measuring 41 millimeters by 33 millimeters. It is the size of a fingerprint of a 14- or 15-year-old person. The relic of the Virgin is oval in shape. In Christian symbolism the beginning of everything is with an ovum: She is shown as the beginning of everything, the Mother of God, the beginning of the New Covenant. It is not known what material the base of the image of the Virgin is made of. It is known that the cacique Coromoto had nothing in his hand when he shouted that he had caught her and when he opened his hand, he showed the image of the Virgin with the Child. It is also known that the image is made of a single stroke. There are thinner strokes that are within the thickness of the fiber. It is an intricacy of fibers.

From the crown comes a veil through which you can also see part of her hair.

The right side of the hair is combed in the form of a braid, in the indigenous style.  The left side of the hair is loose, signifying that she is a virgin.  

In the study of the hair on the left side, appears the planimetry of what is the current Votive Temple (the Basilica). 

Both eyes are different in shape. By microscopic observation, it was possible to identify in the eyes of the Virgin, they measure less than 1/2 millimeter (approximately 400 microns).  It is an eye of human characteristics.  In the right eye of the Virgin one can see the impressed faces of the people who were in the hut at the moment of the apparition.

This eye has a very particular shape, some say that it is heart-shaped, others say that it is the shape of a map of Venezuela.

In the left eye the ocular orb can be observed, the iris is human, there is a small point of light in it.  Inside the iris you can see the image of the figure of Cacique Coromoto with his arm illuminated by the relic in his hand. The wife, the sister-in-law Isabel, the child and the lit fire can be observed.

The Virgin over her left eye shows some mountains. At the same time, the eyebrow and the whole left eye show a character with a wide hat, a wide cape, loose hair and moustaches, like that of a colonizer. A number of faces and images of people appear throughout the image.

Below the eyes and above the nose is the dove representing the Holy Spirit.

It has been proven that it is impossible for it to have been painted or to have used something like India ink. There is information in the resin, in the fibers, in the pigments.  The fiber is both above and below the strokes.   There are strokes thinner than the fibers of the support.  No strokes can be made below the fiber.  It has not been possible to explain scientifically the origin of the pigments that give color to the image, nor the way in which the image was elaborated. The meticulousness in the elaboration of this drawing, its perfection and especially the details found in the eyes of the Virgin lead to the conclusion that it could not have been made by the hand of a human being.

In the tiny image of the Blessed Virgin with the Child seated on her knees, the Child Jesus has his right hand raised in blessing and with the left hand he holds the world represented by a ball on top of which is a cross.

The indigenous face of Our Lady of Coromoto is a smiling face, of a very young woman, adolescent, thin, with fine, delicate and serene features.  A face that gives our homeland its identity and tells Venezuelans that she wants to be with us, encouraging us and bringing us closer to God so that we may be people filled with the happiness that we long for and that the world cannot give. 

Our Lady of Coromoto is not a strange or foreign mother, she is perfectly attuned to our culture and language.

The study also points out that the hands of the Virgin one is thicker and darker skinned and the other thinner and whiter.  The arms and hands of the Virgin in proportion are much larger than the rest.  The large hands symbolize the hands of God.   They are large because motherly love is the closest to God's mercy.

The fingers have red markings, a sign of blood.  These red pigments and frost recall Psalm 147:16 which says The Lord spreads snow like wool and scatters frost like ashes.  These red marks are there meaning that she is sharing the suffering with her Son. She is co-redeemer.   The child's clothing shows that the color red prevails, symbol of the bloodshed in the sacrifice.

On the left side the Virgin's clothing shows a typical European coat.  On the right side she is covered with a puma skin, an animal of great fierceness with which the important people within the tribe were sheltered. 

The Child Jesus has his clothes tightly around his waist and is red in color.

The Virgin is facing the front and seated between two kinds of columns, joined together by an arch in the form of a portal representing the hut or bohío where she appeared to the Cacique and his family. Today it is known that the Virgin is between four columns of the bohío or hut. The Spaniards interpreted the Virgin with a royal crown of five peaks, but studies have clarified that the Virgin is shown with a crown of indigenous queen. She has a white veil that falls over her shoulders and slides down her back, a red mantle over her shoulders that leaves her hands uncovered. A small piece of the tunic, which, like that of the Child, is straw-colored, can be seen.

In the deteriorated part of the image, white and pure, we can see from 2009, a Lamb "standing as if it were sacrificed" (Apoc.5,6) The Child Jesus is transformed into a lamb, in the humblest.  This Child King wants us to serve others as He served, with humility and gave His life to save us. 

The change of the Child into a lamb, the red color in his robe and the symbol of the skull seem to symbolize that it is love given to the extreme.  "They have washed and made their robes white in the blood of the lamb" (Rev. 7:14).  At the same time, to observe that the body of the Child is not present seems to say that He wants us to look for Him with the eyes of the soul and that, at this moment in history, He presents Himself to us as the lamb that was slain so that we may live in the confidence that He has already saved humanity.

The image of the Virgin with the Child Jesus forms a perfect triangle.  Christianity is the only religion whose only God is a family: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The greatest mystery of our Faith. It is the Trinitarian announcement of a new way of approaching Faith, because the church is the work of the Spirit who renews it and gives it life.

The family is called to be a reflection of the Holy Trinity. Of that Love of God, of that reciprocal love between parents and children in the human and spiritual.

On the back of the image of the Child and the Virgin, some columns are represented on the sides in the form of indigenous basket weaving where there are signs, perhaps words in indigenous language or in Ancient Aramaic that will have to be studied further. These four columns are joined at the top forming an arch.

Because of the position of the Virgin with the Child Jesus on her knees, she has been considered to be presenting Jesus to the world and is venerated as the mystery of the Presentation. Jesus does not present Himself alone, He comes with His Mother. This is a message that says that He wants us to adore and imitate Him always with His Mother.  The image is asymmetrical, the crown of the Virgin and Child are typically indigenous. The crown is smooth on the right side and on the left side it resembles the prow of a ship.  The three tufts of the crown are different. It has a series of symbols and signs among them the fleur de lis, a sacred Marian symbol and a series of figures of people with the Virgin of the Rosary in the center.

In the self-restoration it seems that the Virgin is telling us that if she is restoring herself now, after more than 368 years, it is the moment when she is calling us Venezuelans to restore ourselves in a new stage of our history.

The Virgin materializes on the relic.

As a curious note, the day the Virgin appeared to the Cacique and his family in the bohío, some butterflies appeared with the same colors of the Virgin and with two numbers: 8 and 9. Undoubtedly butterflies that indicate the date of her appearance: September 8.

These studies are still in process and more and more details are becoming known about this image of the Mother of God that, undoubtedly, is speaking to Venezuelans in a clearer way each time.

Throughout the different studies it has been possible to see how the Virgin changes by herself revealing the different events in the history of Venezuela. 

There is a photographic record of the same.

Conference of the Virgin of Coromoto.

New findings by María García de Fleury