When traveling the roads of Colombia one often encounters shrines with car headlights around them. It seems that the majority of them are along the twisting mountain roads where sometimes the geological conditions are such that the road just drops away. Truck and bus drivers are known to stop and light a candle. These places are dedicated to the Virgen del Carmen. She is the patrona de los conductores patron saint of drivers as well as the national Colombian police.
The story of the Virgen del Carmen is interesting. The statue looks like the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus, which it is. The difference is that there are one or more scapulars is their hands. The history begins with the Camelites, a Roman Catholic religious order believed to have started in the 12th century.
They are so named because their home was on Mount Carmel. Though disputed by some, it is said that on July 16, the leader, San Simon Stock, had a vision where the Virgin Mary gave him the brown scapular.
She told him that all who wore it and led a Christian life would be saved. Carmelite nuns wearing brown habits are still active. We passed one on the street in a small town in Colombia the other day.
The brown scapular, usually in the hands of the Virgin and Baby Jesus is important. Truck and bus drivers in Colombia will often have a small version of it blessed and placed in their vehicle. Some have said it provides them with the protection that a mother gives her child. Often there is a carrying of the statue of the Virgin through the streets. Here is a Youtube video of it in in Puerto Colombia. Sometimes dangerous mountain roads can help one understand why the virgin is so important.
