Blessed among All Women: The Missionary Virgin, Identity and Territory in Patagonia

Abstract

After the creation of the Diocese of Viedma (1953), in Northern Patagonia, there took place the dedication to the Missionary Virgin, promoted by the Diocese’s second Bishop, Monsignor Miguel Hesayne (1975–1993). In the midst of the military dictatorship (1976–1983), he appointed her Patron Saint of Río Negro, a province that at the time belonged to the Diocese of Viedma. He followed the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, especially the Puebla Document, which considers the Virgin Mary as the patron saint of the Americas, with the dedication of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Hesayne sought to identify his Diocese with a female figure with indigenous features, like the Virgin of Guadalupe. In conceiving the Missionary Virgin deprived of ornaments and royal attributes, the bishop aimed to reflect his pastoral of the “option for the poor,” thus bringing attention to the marginalized groups and peripheral spaces of the province, and also attributing a new meaning to its social and territorial identity.