Religion in the Canary Islands
According to a survey conducted in 2019, Canary Islands is the fifth autonomous community in Spain with the highest percentage of people who declare themselves to be Catholics after the Region of Murcia, Extremadura, Galicia, Aragon, and Castile and León.
The Bishopric of Telde was basically a project of evangelization of the Canary Islands by Mallorcan and Catalan missionaries, which failed because of raids by European pirates which angered the natives.
After the conquest of the island in 1402 a small church or hermitage was established in the Rubicon Castle, which later acquired the title of cathedral by papal concession, dedicated to Saint Martial.
The Antipope Benedict XIII in a bull issued on July 7, 1404, created the Diocese of San Marcial del Rubicón.
[8] Thereafter, aboriginal leaders subdued on the islands of Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, La Gomera and El Hierro were baptized along with their followers.
The Virgin of Candelaria would enjoy a considerable religious and cultural importance in the archipelago, to the point that in 1599 she was declared Patron Saint of the Canary Islands by Pope Clement VIII, a title ratified in 1867 by Pius IX.
[10] In 1485, after the conquest of Gran Canaria, Pope Innocent VIII definitively authorized the transfer of the diocesan seat from San Marcial del Rubicón to Las Palmas.
In the nineteenth century a new bishopric was founded in the Canary Islands, the Diocese of San Cristobal de La Laguna in 1819.
Many of the Canarian festivities have a Catholic religious background, such as the romerias and the tradition of the bajadas of some images of the island patrons worshiped in the archipelago.
The strategic situation of the archipelago on the commercial routes and its condition as a bridge of union between Europe, Africa and America motivated the establishment in the islands of merchants and missions of various religions, including Jews and Protestants.
[18] The Muslim communities were definitively established in the Canary Islands on Tenerife and Gran Canaria between the 19th and 20th centuries, later on Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, and still later on La Palma.
[2] Currently, the Islamic Federation of the Canary Islands is the religious organization that brings together the associations and communities of the Canarian archipelago.
[19] Judaism came to the Canary Islands in the 15th century with the conquest, from the converted Jews who moved from the Iberian Peninsula and who would continue practicing their ancient religion in secret.
[2] Due to the strong link existing with Latin American countries such as Cuba and Venezuela, there is a presence in the islands of African-American practices such as Santería, Voodoo, Candomblé, Palo Mayombe and Venezuelan Spiritism.
[22] There are other small religious communities qualified as sects, such as the Church of Scientology (of which its founder L. Ron Hubbard visited the Canary Islands several times in the 1960s and 1970s)[23] among others.
