Our Lady of Africa in Ceuta

Ceuta city has a fascinating history as the crossroads between Europe and Africa, and it has come up a few times in the past week through reading a book about Al-Andalus and in current events. A small peninsula off the African coast that juts into the Atlantic and Mediterranean, Ceuta has had a presence since the time of the Phoenicians. It fell under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate in the 700s, when Muslims moved through North Africa and conquered a large portion of the Iberian peninsula. The division between Africa and Europe was less distinct. The Umayyads were known for their pluralist society of science of arts, where Muslims, Christians, and Jews intermingled freely. After the fall of the caliphate, it fell under various Muslim rulers who were more restrictive with the Christian and Jewish populations.

Then, in 1415, Portugal conquered Ceuta. King John I gave a statue of Our Lady holding the crucified Christ to the city. This statue became known as Our Lady of Africa or Our Lady of Ceuta. A few years later, Prince Henry the Navigator, who participated in the conquest, sent a sacred image/statue to the city to consecrate the continent to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Portuguese conquest shifted Ceuta’s position from a northern post for Muslim, African rulers to reach Europe to a southern port for Christian European rulers to stage further expansion into Africa.

In 1668 Ceuta was ceded to Spain in the Treaty of Lisbon. Beginning in 1694, Moroccan forces began a long (33-year) siege on Ceuta, but Spain kept control. Its position at the Strait of Gibraltar, just 11 miles from the Spanish coast, made it a continued military asset. Britain briefly occupied the city during the Napoleonic Wars. After Franco took command of the Spanish Army of Africa, Ceuta became one of the first battles of the Civil War. When Morocco gained independence from Spain in 1956, Ceuta remained under Spanish rule.

It remains a city with a cosmopolitan air; about half the population is Arab-Berber, and there is a an almost even split between Christians and Muslims, with a notable presence of Hindus and Jews. Since 2010, Ceuta has celebrated Eid al-Adha, or the Muslim Feast of the Sacrifice, as an official public holiday. It is the first time a non-Christian religious festival has been officially celebrated in Spanish ruled territory since the Reconquista.

As a part of the EU with a land border in Africa, Ceuta has drawn attention from many migrants seeking to enter the EU. Recently, news spread that the border between Spain and Morocco was unusually open; an estimated 60,000 people swarmed the border. At least 67 people died in the melee. Following that incident, Pope Leo XIV has called for peace, stability, and justice and asked for people to pray for the intercession of Our Lady of Africa.

Places like Ceuta interest me, because we so often think of places being set in stone: this country, this culture. But the more we learn history, the more we see that borders and cultures have always been intermingled, influencing one another. One city can say so much, about invasion and faith and art and politics. And that deep history is still being played out now. It is through understanding the history that we can better understand and address the current situations.   

Our Lady of Africa is celebrated in Ceuta on August 5.