Which Virgin Mary did Cardinal Tagle give Pope Leo?

Last October 10, Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle gifted Pope Leo XIV with an image of Manila’s Nuestra Señora de la Consolación y Correa (Our Lady of Consolation and the Cincture), the Marian Patroness of the Augustinian order, as well as of the old walled city of Manila, better known as Intramuros (literally, within the walls).

The image appears to be a souvenir of the Cardinal’s most recent visit to the San Agustin Church, where an adorned statue of the image is kept. 

This church is also the archdiocesan Shrine to Nuestra Señora de la Consolación y Correa, and houses the original 17th-century image in a retablo above the main altar.  

It is unknown in which year the image first came to the church, but custom assumes she has been there since it first opened its doors. Both the church and the intricately adorned Madonna survived the shelling of Manila during the Second World War. For this reason, many regard the Virgin as the miraculous protectress of the church.

The image is an articulation of the original image of Our Lady of Consolation and the Cincture, present in every Augustinian community.  

In older portraits of Our Lady of Consolation, she is shown simply dressed in blue, handing a black cincture to St. Monica and St. Augustine. The story behind the image is that our Blessed Mother appeared to a distraught Monica, who was suffering immensely because of her son Augustine’s faithless life. 

To console her, the Blessed Virgin took the belt around her waist and gave it to Monica as a gesture of comfort and nearness. After Augustine’s conversion, his mother gave him the cincture, which he then replicated for the members of the Augustinians. The cincture has always been part of the Augustinian habit. 

Manila’s version of the image is clad in a gold garment, known as a plancha, from the neck down. Her collar and veil are made from lace. She also wears a light blue cape, embroidered with gold detail. Her tender face and hands are sculpted in ivory. 

The child Jesus in her left hand is also dressed in an intricately embroidered gold garment. She carries the black cincture with her right hand.

A confraternity to this Madonna was established in 1607 and continues to this day. This confraternity is one of the oldest Marian confraternities in the Philippines, and has established Manila as Asia’s seat of devotion to Our Lady of Consolation.  The confraternity also offers financial aid to vocations coming from underprivileged backgrounds.

Since its establishment, devotion to Our Lady of Consolation has spread to the provinces. But its headquarters remain in Intramuros, where members gather every year on her feast day. Canonically, her feast day falls on September 4, but Cardinal Advincula released a proclamation on September 8 of this year, stipulating that she be honored in Manila every second Sunday of September. 

The devotion once lent its title to the Asylum of our Lady of Consolation in Mandaluyong, which housed victims of the cholera outbreak in 1882. Although a school of the Salesian fathers has since replaced the institution, the memory of its existence is a reminder of how this 400-year-old devotion inspires tangible acts of Christian charity. 

Public devotion to her includes Masses offered every Saturday at the Church of San Agustin, processions on her feast day every September, and the Virgin’s participation in a Grand Marian Procession every first Sunday of December. She is also brought out after the mid-morning Mass on the last Saturday of the month for a Clausura procession. At this procession, devotees pass her from one shoulder to another as they walk around the convent — a tradition that began in the early monastic period. 

At the Mass that Cardinal Tagle celebrated at the San Agustin Church on her feast day this year, he shared a few insights underlining why devotion to her remains relevant. He said that true devotion to her nudges us to be channels of grace, strength, and comfort to those who suffer. He warned that if we pray to her but only add to another person’s suffering, our devotions are inauthentic. He also reminded the congregation that her story serves as a reminder that true, enduring comfort always comes from God. 

“All other forms of consolation and comfort, if not rooted in God, are fleeting. They will disappear. And in fact, they could be false consolation, false comfort.”

Hence, he said, it is important for every believer to “Go to Christ. There is no one who understands our pain and our tiredness (like him).” 

A number of devotions and traditions are linked to Mary's "correa" -- which takes various names in English, from girdle to sash to belt.

For example, one beautiful tradition says that she gave her belt to St. Thomas the Apostle who showed up late (again) for her Assumption.

In the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, it is her belt that, according to the Aztec tradition, indicates she is with Child, and that little Jesus is hidden in her womb. Thus the devotion to her belt as a relic is often associated with pregnancy and prayers for safe delivery.

In the East, the belt is referred to as the Cincture of the Theotokos.