The Black Christ

Quick! Name Guatemala’s most-visited destination. Antigua? Chichicastenango? Tikal? Even if it’s not on your itinerary, an estimated one million Guatemalans and their fellow Central Americans flock to the southeastern city of Esquipulas, 222 km (133 miles) east of Guatemala City, each year to visit the whitewashed Basílica de Esquipulas (Parque Central, Esquipulas Free Daily 6 am–8 pm).

Guatemala’s most famous church houses the figure of the Cristo Negro (Black Christ), an object of veneration for the faithful throughout Central America. Italian immigrant Quirio Cataño carved the dark-wood figure in 1585, and several miracles have been attributed to it. Eighteenth-century Archbishop Pedro Pablo de Figueroa of Guatemala claimed to have been cured himself of illness by the Cristo Negro; he ordered a fine church constructed to house the figure. The end result was the baroque, four-towered church, completed in 1758, that sits on Esquipulas’s central park. Pope John XXIII elevated the church to basilica status in 1961.

The line of pilgrims forms at the east side of the basilica, and snakes slowly to the image housed in a glass case behind the main altar. Many drop to their knees as they approach the case. Notes of thanks and tiny medallions depicting various body parts cured festoon the area around the image. The line out of the basilica moves even more slowly. Tradition says that the faithful should not turn their backs on the Black Christ, and many exit the church walking backwards.