Lord Holy Christ (Senhor Santo Cristo) is the greatest devotion of the Azorean people, drawing crowds in one of the biggest religious festivities in Portugal. Celebrated in the fifth week after Easter, this feast is the largest community event in the Azores archipelago.
The worship of the Lord Holy Christ of the Miracles (Senhor Santo Cristo dos Milagres) is organised around an image of the Lord Ecce Homo, currently venerated in the temple of the Monastery of Nossa Senhora da Esperança (Our Lady of Hope), in Ponta Delgada.
The devout sculpture was offered by Pope Paul III (1534-1549), following the foundation of the first convent on the island of São Miguel, located in Caloura. Built on a rock overlooking the sea, the convent was too exposed to attacks by pirates and corsairs, leading some nuns to move to the Convent of Our Lady of Hope, taking the image of Lord Holy Christ with them.
The worship was particularly encouraged from the late 17th century onwards by Mother Teresa of Annunciation, who devoted a deep veneration to it, inaugurating a set of devotional practices that were continued by the religious community and the faithful.
Every year, Campo de São Francisco welcomes tens of thousands of people, including locals and Azoreans from other islands or from other countries, gathered in praise and devotion to the “Lord of the Islands”.
After a procession and night vigil the day before, on Sunday morning there is a solemn Eucharist in Campo de São Francisco, followed in the afternoon by the great procession through the main streets of Ponta Delgada, in which hundreds of men with red sleeveless robes, ladies of promises and other pilgrims join. Then the civic procession takes place, in which representatives of the various civil and military institutions take part.
As an unavoidable identity reference of the Azores archipelago, the Lord Holy Christ is currently venerated and celebrated in various parts of the world, on the initiative of the Azorean diaspora, namely in the United States, Canada, and Brazil.