Our Lady of Charity (Latin: Nostra Domina Charitatis) is a celebrated Marian title of the Blessed Virgin Mary venerated in many Catholic countries.

According to old documents found in the General Archive of the Indies (Seville), the arrival of the image of the Virgin of Charity to the mountains of the Sierra del Cobre, in Cuba, took place when an Illescan, Francisco Sánchez de Moya, captain of artillery, received on May 3, 1597 a mandate from King Philip II of Spain to go to the mines of the Sierra del Cobre to defend those coasts from the attacks of English pirates.

[citation needed] King Charles IV of Spain issued a decree on 19 May 1801 that Cuban slaves were to be freed from the El Cobre copper mines.

Later folk legends associated the taking of copper materials to their homes after having it blessed near the Virgin's sanctified image as a form of souvenir and miraculous healing.

[1] The Cuban statue venerated measures about 16 inches tall; the head is made of baked clay covered with a polished coat of fine white powder.

[10] Emilio Cueto points out the Christian themes suggested by La Cachita: "She came to Cuba bearing the greatest of gifts—her own child—and appeared not to a priest or bishop, but to common men.

On his Apostolic Visit to Cuba in 24 January 1998, Pope John Paul II declared the following: As we remember these aspects of the mission of the Church, let us give thanks to God, who has called us to be part of it.

Cuban history is dotted with marvelous expressions of love for her Patroness, at whose feet the figures of the humble natives, two Indians and a dark-haired man, symbolize the rich plurality of this people.

The Catholic Saint, John Eudes founded the "Order of Our Lady of Charity of the Refuge" to give reformed prostitutes housing, shelter and new work.

Another pilgrimage chapel of Our Lady of Charity near Sainte Laurent sur la Plaine which was destroyed by order of the French revolutionary government in 1791.

[18] Pope Paul VI granted a decree of Pontifical coronation titled Quandoquidem Beatissima Virgo for a namesake image in Huamantla, Mexico in 25 July 1974.

In the 16th century, the image was transferred to a local Hospital of Charity where a famed miraculous healing of paralyzed patient Francesca de la Cruz took place in 1562.

Pope Paul VI granted a pontifical decree of coronation for a namesake image in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Andalusia on 28 March 1965.

Pope John Paul II later issued a pontifical decree Qua Veneratione Augustissima which raised her shrine to the status of Minor Basilica on 19 February 1997.