Mons. Aldo Cavalli, the Apostolic Nuncio in Colombia since 2007 and presently assigned to Malta, came to preside the Eucharist with three concelebrating bishops, one of whom is Mons. Javier Pizarro, the Augustinian Recollect prelate of the apostolic vicariate of Trinidad. The Church was overflowing; there was a huge number of priests, religious and thousands of lay faithful who participated. It was during the homily when the Nuncio underscored the great labor of evangelization that the Augustinian Recollects do particularly in this popular sanctuary.
More than three centuries in Casanare
The Augustinian Recollects have been in Casanare for more then three centuries. They played their role and witnessed how the Christian people progressively identified themselves with the Virgin of Good Voyage, the patroness of the Llanos. “It is the image that forms, perhaps, the only religion of many Llaneros” . This is what the Recollect Manuel Fernandez wrote to St. Ezekiel Moreno, then the Apostolic Vicar of Casanare, at the end of the year 1892. At that time, even when the community had been abandoned for decades, peoples, including those from Venezuela, continued to be attracted to the Virgin.
The Recollects have accompanied them ever since. In 1948, in times of calamities and during the civil wars. In 1953 the image was transferred to the new town, Paz de Ariporo, which was built near the original place of the image. The Recollects built the church in this new town. In here the devotion, the septenary created by the Recollect Fray Pedro Fabo, continued. And there continued also the sound of the joropo composed by another Recoleto, Fr. Francisco Lucea, an apostle of Casanare.
The image of the Virgin of Good Voyage or of Manare is one that appears Sorrowful. It is one of those, which are called, “de vestir”, one that has to be dressed. It has finely carved bust, hands and feet. The rest of the body, which are made of wood, serve as frame to support the vestments and the black mantle embroidered with fine threads of gold.
Around the image there grew a parish that extends pastoral care to some 16 barrios. A community of three Augustinian Recollects, in collaboration with some women religious and various basic ecclesial communities, exercise the parish ministry. An “Integrated System of New Evangelization” exists and under this program there is a good number of apostolic groups with a variety of pastoral actions. In addition the religious serve as chaplains of the three schools in the area. They also extend pastoral care to the prison in the department of Casanare.