By Alexia Beatriz Fodere - The Archdiocese of Miami

 

Photography: Alexia Fodere | FC

MIAMI | When the pilgrim image of Our Lady of Charity entered Sacred Heart Catholic Parish in Homestead, Wilma Pozo could not hold back her tears. It was the final stop of a 35-mile journey through nine parishes across Miami-Dade County; but for her, the moment was anything but ceremonial. Before the Virgin, she carried a personal petition: her son, Rafael Draper, is suffering from colon cancer. He had finished chemotherapy and, on that very day, had begun radiation.

“I asked her to heal my son,” Wilma said. She also prayed for the people of Cuba: the homeland of her husband, whose brothers still live there.

Pozo is Dominican, but Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre has long been part of her family’s spiritual life. An aunt was deeply devoted to the Virgin. So when Pozo saw the image enter her parish, emotion came before words. “From the moment I saw her coming, I started crying from the joy of seeing her arrive at my parish and having her right there in front of me, so close,” she said. “There are no words to explain the emotion I felt.”

That scene, repeated in different ways throughout the day, captured the meaning of the Aug. 22, 2026 pilgrimage: bringing a Mother close to her children and through her, drawing them again toward Jesus.

The pilgrim image – a symbol of the Virgin Mary's presence in South Florida – traveled approximately 35 miles in a motorcade organized by the National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity. The all-day pilgrimage linked nine Catholic communities: Our Lady of Lourdes, St. John Neumann, St. Louis, Our Lady of the Holy Rosary – St. Richard, Christ the King, St. Joachim, St. Ann Catholic Mission, St. Martin de Porres and Sacred Heart Parish in Homestead, where the day concluded.

At every stop, the faces, ages, accents and personal histories changed, but many gestures were the same: flowers held out toward the image of the Virgin, rosaries wrapped around fingers, Cuban flags raised in the crowd, phones lifted to preserve the moment, hands reaching out to touch the image, and people approaching with petitions known perhaps only to them and to God.

At St. Ann Catholic Mission in Naranja, the faithful brought more than flowers and prayers. They also left written petitions for the Virgin; words born from need, gratitude or hope, a simple and deeply Catholic way of entrusting to Mary what can be difficult to say aloud.

Devotion to Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, patroness of Cuba, carries particular weight in South Florida, where generations of Cuban Catholics have carried prayers, images and traditions with them into exile. But the pilgrimage revealed something broader. The Virgin does not belong to one nationality alone. Cubans, Dominicans and Catholics from different backgrounds prayed together beneath the same maternal mantle.

Carla Salazar, the head of Las Cantoras Nazarenas, experienced the procession as “a moment of profound faith and emotion,” a time to entrust to Mary her intentions, worries and gratitude.

“It was a moment of great joy and peace, when all of us sang from our hearts,” she said.

The moment that touched Carla most came as the image approached while Las Cantoras Nazarenas were singing and her father, Juan Salazar from Chile, accompanied them on accordion.

“I felt a very special light,” she recalled. With the music, her father beside her and the community gathered together, the arrival became a moment of faith, unity and joy she said she will always carry in her heart.

Carla also saw the journey through so many parishes as a visible sign of communion. “Although we come from different parishes, cultures and life experiences, we all gather under the same mantle of our Mother,” she said. Mary’s visit, she added, reminded them that Catholics are one family in faith and that the Virgin “goes out to meet each of her children, bringing them hope, consolation and strength.”

If she could ask a grace of Our Lady of Charity, Carla said she would pray for peace in the world, protection for all families, healing for the sick, more love in the hearts of humanity and the conversion of souls. She would also ask Mary to protect immigrants, unite brotherhoods, bring peace to families, and watch over countries living through conflict, especially Cuba and Haiti.

She also wanted her prayer to include thanksgiving: “I do not only want to ask her for things, but also to thank her for visiting us and for being a ray of light in our lives.”

For Clara Cabrera, seeing the image of the Virgin arrive at her parish opened another memory. She was deeply moved by the freedom to express openly her love for Mary.

During her journey by sea to the United States, Cabrera and those traveling with her prayed for the Virgin’s protection. Years later, seeing the image come close to the faithful in South Florida brought that moment back.

“It moved me to see each person approach her with a flower and a petition in the heart,” Cabrera said. She believes the visit to so many parishes made it easier for the faithful to draw closer to the Virgin.

Maria Cruz, who was surrounded by her family, found herself carried back to adolescence. “For me it was a very special moment. I felt very emotional when I saw her and heard the songs,” she said.

The scene reminded her of being young in her own country, when she loved going to church to bring flowers to the Virgin and decorate her altar. She would pray when she felt sad. And when she decided to come to the United States, she asked Mary to always watch over her and her family.

“I know my Blessed Mother has never left me alone,” Cruz said. “She has always accompanied me and interceded for me before her beloved Son.”

That intimate relationship – the Virgin connected to a departure, an illness, a family, a longing or a life-changing decision – surfaced again and again as the motorcade moved south.

And alongside the motorcade came the motorcycles.

Knights on Bikes Florida, a Catholic motorcycle group whose members are Knights of Columbus, escorted the image during the pilgrimage. The group brings together the Catholic faith and a love of motorcycles, viewing riding not simply as a hobby but as a way to build fraternity, evangelize and carry a message of love and compassion into communities in Florida and beyond.

For George Gutierrez, known as “Gman,” president of Knights on Bikes Florida, accompanying the image of Our Lady of Charity was “a profound honor and blessing.”

“This was not simply a ride,” he said. “It was a journey of faith, devotion and love for the Mother who always leads us closer to her Son, Jesus.”

As they traveled from parish to parish, Gutierrez said, every mile became a prayer and every stop an opportunity to honor Mary. The experience reminded the riders that the Blessed Mother remains close to her children. They prayed that she would watch over their families, brotherhood and journeys, protect them on every road, strengthen their faith and lead them to Jesus.

For Knights on Bikes, their willingness to serve is part of their identity as Knights of Columbus. Gutierrez said that when they are called to serve the Lord and His Blessed Mother, their duty is to answer, “Present!”

He described the day as an opportunity for the Knights to stand together in service to Mary: “What a beautiful opportunity we have to come together as Knights, united in our faith, to honor, serve and protect Our Lady. May we always be ready to answer the call and proudly stand together as Knights on Bikes.”

Their devotion ended with two phrases associated with the group: “Viva Cristo Rey!” and “In God We Trust and Ride.”

While the motorcycles gave the procession a visible presence on the roads, inside the parishes the experience was often quiet and personal. At St. Joachim, families gathered under umbrellas as music accompanied the celebration. At St. Louis, clergy and faithful welcomed the flower-covered image. At Sacred Heart, people once more approached the image of the Virgin carrying rosaries, flowers and Cuban flags.

There, Samuel Lucero held a Cuban flag as the faithful gathered around the pilgrim image. Julia Rivero also carried the colors of Cuba, while Sara Iglesia held a flag bearing the image of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre. These were not simply decorative objects. Each flag carried a story of identity and faith; each rosary, an intention. Around the Virgin, generations and cultures met, and the final stop felt like a family gathered around its Mother.

One line from the Knights on Bikes prayer seemed to summarize the day: “Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, pray for us.” For the bikers, escorting her image on two wheels was a concrete way of placing their rides at the service of the Church.

Pozo understands that devotion intimately. She and her husband have visited the National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity in Miami many times and shared moments on several occasions with Monsignor Agustín Román, a figure deeply woven into the spiritual history of Miami’s Cuban exile community. For years, they also attended the annual Mass honoring the Virgin at the University of Miami. Pozo would carry her Dominican flag; her husband, the Cuban flag.

That is why the arrival of the image at Sacred Heart was not simply another visit for them. It was memory, belonging and prayer all at once.

Pozo had followed the pilgrimage from its first stop. Her husband was deeply moved to have the Virgin's image so close. And when the image finally stood before them, all the miles of the day seemed to collapse into the smallest of distances: the distance between a mother and a child in need of consolation.

Pozo’s son Rafael was there too, even if he was not physically at the scene. He was present in his mother’s prayer, in the fear that accompanies serious illness, in the hope placed in his treatment, and in the trust of a family that asks for help without forgetting to give thanks.

Cuba was there as well in the prayers of so many, in family members still on the island, in the memories of those who left, in those who crossed the sea praying for protection, in those who learned as children to bring flowers to Mary’s altar, and even in those not born in Cuba who made the devotion their own.

By the end of the day, the image of the Virgin had visited nine parishes. But for the faithful, the true journey could not be measured only in miles.

The Virgin Mary had passed through memories of adolescence, journeys by sea, a cancer diagnosis, families separated by borders, hymns accompanied by an accordion, handwritten petitions, promises, thanksgiving and tears.

The motorcade ended in Homestead. The prayers did not.

Before the image of Our Lady of Charity, Wilma Pozo still carried the same petitions with which she had welcomed her: Rafael’s healing, the protection of her family and the people of Cuba.

And in the middle of the crowd, her prayer was deeply personal and at the same time shared by so many others: Mother, accompany us. Cover us with your mantle. And always lead us to your Son.