The Marian devotion that unites Dominicans and Haitians despite decades of persecution

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Whatever conflict may exist between them, thousands of Dominicans and Haitians gather as one each year on Jan. 21 in Salvaleón de Higüey to celebrate Our Lady of Altagracia.

The Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Altagracia, located in this city in the eastern Dominican Republic, celebrates Mass in Spanish and Haitian Creole. (I’m from the Dominican Republic and made my first visit to the basilica two years ago.) Most pilgrims wear red and blue on that day, reflecting the colors worn by Nuestra Señora de Altagracia (Our Lady of High Grace), as well as the colors of the Haitian and Dominican flags.

“As many Haitians go as Dominicans,” according to José Guerrero, a professor at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo. “You can’t always tell who is Dominican and who is Haitian—a lot of Haitians speak Spanish. After a few generations, they no longer speak Creole.”

As is common with popular devotions, it is difficult to parse historical facts from legend. But devotion to Our Lady of Altagracia began in the 16th century. Two Spanish brothers settled in Higüey, one of whom had two daughters. The younger daughter dreamt of the Blessed Mother, who told her to ask her father to bring her an image of Our Lady of Altagracia on his next trip to Santo Domingo, a port city that is now the nation’s capital.

Her father found no such image on his trip. He stayed at an inn on his way back, confiding in a fellow traveler of his failed quest. An elderly man who overheard the story unfurled the 13-by-18-inch image of Our Lady of Altagracia and gave it to him.

Once home, the father gave the image to his daughter, who gladly received it. Overnight, the image vanished and reappeared mysteriously in an orange tree grove. The family retrieved the image, but it unexplainably wound up in the grove again. Eventually, a church was built for the image at the location.

The image hung in St. Dionysius Church from 1571 until it was moved to the modern-day Basilica of Our Lady of Altagracia in 1970. An estimated 800,000 pilgrims visit the basilica annually.

At first, the feast of Our Lady of Altagracia was celebrated on Aug. 15, the day the universal church has for centuries celebrated the Assumption of Mary. But, according to some accounts, the people began celebrating Our Lady of Altagracia on Jan. 21 after the Spanish defeated the French on that day in 1691 in the Battle of de la Sabana Real de la Limonade. More than 70 years later, Archbishop Isidoro Rodríguez Lorenzo of Santo Domingo declared Jan. 21 the official feast day.

The devotion to Our Lady of Altagracia was brought to Quibor, Venezuela, by the great ancestor of Simón Bolivar, who fought for the independence of nations in South America. Venezuelans also celebrate her on Jan. 21.

In terms of Haitian devotion, Mr. Guerrero pointed to an account from an English diplomat that described a woman from Port-au-Prince traveling to Higüey to pray for her deaf child in 1825. The island was under Haitian rule at the time, and devotion to Our Lady of Altagracia continued. Catholicism was the dominant religion then, and continues to be the faith of most Dominicans and Haitians.

“As far as the Blessed Mother goes, there is no division,” according to Mr. Guerrero. “The Haitians who go to Higúey are welcomed. They ask for her intercession and express their faith strongly, as do Dominicans.”

Their common faith, however, has not healed the long-running tensions between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Dominican President Luis Abinader, who has led the country since 2020, has visited both the basilica in Higüey and the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Mercedes (Our Lady of Mercy), the less popular but official patroness of the Dominican Republic.

Yet under Mr. Abinader’s leadership, the Dominican government declared its intention to deport at least 10,000 Haitian immigrants a week. According to the Dominican Immigration Directorate, the country deported more than 276,000 Haitians in 2024.

Anti-Haitian sentiment in the country can be traced back at least as far as Raphael Trujillo, a ruthless dictator who came to power in 1930. Trujillo commanded Dominican historians at the time to write inaccurate depictions of Haitians, who were blamed for a poor economy and seen as a threat to national identity.

In 1937, the Dominican National Guard executed as many as 25,000 Haitians living in the country. The press, which Trujillo controlled, falsely reported that Haitians were stealing cattle in the border region and that it had been rural Dominicans who killed them.

Ironically perhaps, Trujillo’s mother was born on Jan. 21 and was named Altagracia. Construction of the current basilica began during his dictatorship.

The structure was completed during the presidency of Joaquín Ballaguer. Ballaguer was ostensibly devoted to Our Lady of Altagracia, crediting her with saving his life in a helicopter accident, Mr. Guerrero said. Ballaguer’s presidential car, now in a museum, is adorned with two Our Lady of Altagracia decals on the windshield.

“All the politicians go to Higüey,” Mr. Guerrero said. “Politicians politicize her.”

Trujillo was assassinated in 1961, but in many ways, the narrative he began about Haitian immigrants persists. In 2013, the Dominican Constitutional Court retroactively stripped Dominican nationality from anyone who did not have at least one parent of Dominican ancestry. The ruling affected as many as 200,000 Dominicans of Haitian descent.

“God willing, the day will never come,” Mr. Guerrero said. “But if there is ever a grave conflict between the two countries, and the politicians and the diplomats cannot come to an agreement, they should be able to appeal to Our Lady of Altagracia as an intermediary identity between the Dominican and Haitian people.”

Perhaps that day has come. In the last 15 years alone, Haiti has suffered through a cholera epidemic, earthquakes and hurricanes. In 2021, President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated, and in recent years gang violence has beset the nation.

It is unconscionable that the current administration in the D.R. is deporting hundreds of thousands of Haitians to a country in such violent turmoil—violence that has displaced more than a million Haitians in the last year. The church recognizes the right of sovereign nations to control their borders, but it’s hard to know what to make of Mr. Abinader’s visit to the Basilica of Our Lady of Altagracia given such actions.

“It must be said clearly: There are those who work systematically and with every means possible to repel migrants—to repel migrants. And this, when done with awareness and responsibility, is a grave sin,” Pope Francis said during a Wednesday audience last August. “The orphan, the widow and the stranger are the quintessential poor whom God always defends and asks to be defended.”

As we celebrate Our Lady of Altagracia, may Haitians and Dominicans recognize her as our common mother. May she bring comfort and peace, and may she bring about the conversion of the hearts of those who seek to divide the people on the island of Quisqueya.

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