Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said that he was aided in his recent bout with an unknown type of cancer by long dead doctor, who has become a local semi-deity, Jose Gregorio Hernandez.
"I inscribe myself in the list of people that have been covered by Jose Gregorio Hernandez’s mantle in that legion of men and women that are alive thanks to him," Chavez said during a phone interview with anchors at the Venezolana de Television state television network.
Chavez's announcement came the day after his government decreed "Jose Gregorio Hernandez Day" to be observed every October 26, the day of Hernandez’s birth.
Chavez has certainly been more mystic after his misfortune: The government’s slogan has been changed from “Fatherland, Socialism or Death!” to “To Live by Living...”, prompting the joke in Caracas that, at least for him, there is life after death. References to death, the devil, hell and violence have all but disapeared from the official discourse, being replaced with statements like the recent one about Jose Gregorio.
Jose Gregorio Hernandez (October 26, 1864 - June 29, 1919) was a medical doctor who worked mostly for the poor and mostly for free, even buying the medicines for his patients. Born in the Venezuelan Andes, he studied to become a Catholic priest but ultimately stuck with medicine. While delivering medicine to a sick patient, he was run over in the downtown neighborhood of La Pastora, Caracas, by one of the handful of cars existing in Caracas in the 1920’s. And, after that, his cult really took off.
Now he is now known as “the doctor of the poor” and “the venerable one.” There are statues of him in areas of the country: One in Yaracuy, which was vandalized recently, and another in Guacara, Carabobo state. There is even a university in Zulia state named after him. In 1949, Venezuelan Catholic Church officials began the process that would lead the beatification of Hernández. The process of his canonization commenced during the Vatican I , which granted him the title of "Venerable" in 1985.
"He's a popular figure worshipped in Venezuela, said to be able to perform miracles for those who pray to him," says Russell Maddicks, a BBC journalist and former reporter for the Caracas Daily Journal, who is the author of the Bradt Travel Guide to Venezuela. "For the lack of one miracle he has not been fully canonized by the Catholic church, but he is venerated as a Servant of God. Officially, the Catholic church has proclaimed him as Venerable, but he needs a proven post-death miracle to quailfy for the next stage, beatification."
However, his lack of Sainthood has not stopped Venezuelans who adore Hernandez in effigy and ask him for favors and miracles. In the informal pantheon of Venezuela’s "santeria" and "brujeria", a mix of Catholic, African and indigenous beliefs, Hernandez is widely adored. He is also revered by the María Lionza religion of Venezuela, one of the most popular derivativations in the country.
Local left wing lore embellishes Jose Gregorio’s mystique, claiming that he was a victim of the Juan Vicente Gomez dictatorship: According to published reports, Hernandez was run over either by a son of Gomez or by a friend of one of the dictator’s sons, and that was the reason why his death was not sufficiently investigated.
Chavez underwent two operations in Cuba, and said he had a cancerous tumor extracted succeessfully in June. Afterwards he underwent four cycles of chemotherapy. Last week he claimed to be cancer free. Neither Chavez nor the government have revealed the exact type and location of the cancer.
The significance of Hernandez in Venezuelan culture is, of course, not lost on Chavez, who launched “Mision Jose Gregorio Hernandez”, an ambitious social program designed to provide victims of catastrophic diseases such as cancer with free medical care. The government claims “Mision Jose Gregorio” has helped over 300,000 Venezuelans since it began in March 2008.
"I inscribe myself in the list of people that have been covered by Jose Gregorio Hernandez’s mantle in that legion of men and women that are alive thanks to him," Chavez said during a phone interview with anchors at the Venezolana de Television state television network.
Chavez's announcement came the day after his government decreed "Jose Gregorio Hernandez Day" to be observed every October 26, the day of Hernandez’s birth.
Chavez has certainly been more mystic after his misfortune: The government’s slogan has been changed from “Fatherland, Socialism or Death!” to “To Live by Living...”, prompting the joke in Caracas that, at least for him, there is life after death. References to death, the devil, hell and violence have all but disapeared from the official discourse, being replaced with statements like the recent one about Jose Gregorio.
Jose Gregorio Hernandez (October 26, 1864 - June 29, 1919) was a medical doctor who worked mostly for the poor and mostly for free, even buying the medicines for his patients. Born in the Venezuelan Andes, he studied to become a Catholic priest but ultimately stuck with medicine. While delivering medicine to a sick patient, he was run over in the downtown neighborhood of La Pastora, Caracas, by one of the handful of cars existing in Caracas in the 1920’s. And, after that, his cult really took off.
Now he is now known as “the doctor of the poor” and “the venerable one.” There are statues of him in areas of the country: One in Yaracuy, which was vandalized recently, and another in Guacara, Carabobo state. There is even a university in Zulia state named after him. In 1949, Venezuelan Catholic Church officials began the process that would lead the beatification of Hernández. The process of his canonization commenced during the Vatican I , which granted him the title of "Venerable" in 1985.
"He's a popular figure worshipped in Venezuela, said to be able to perform miracles for those who pray to him," says Russell Maddicks, a BBC journalist and former reporter for the Caracas Daily Journal, who is the author of the Bradt Travel Guide to Venezuela. "For the lack of one miracle he has not been fully canonized by the Catholic church, but he is venerated as a Servant of God. Officially, the Catholic church has proclaimed him as Venerable, but he needs a proven post-death miracle to quailfy for the next stage, beatification."
However, his lack of Sainthood has not stopped Venezuelans who adore Hernandez in effigy and ask him for favors and miracles. In the informal pantheon of Venezuela’s "santeria" and "brujeria", a mix of Catholic, African and indigenous beliefs, Hernandez is widely adored. He is also revered by the María Lionza religion of Venezuela, one of the most popular derivativations in the country.
Local left wing lore embellishes Jose Gregorio’s mystique, claiming that he was a victim of the Juan Vicente Gomez dictatorship: According to published reports, Hernandez was run over either by a son of Gomez or by a friend of one of the dictator’s sons, and that was the reason why his death was not sufficiently investigated.
Chavez underwent two operations in Cuba, and said he had a cancerous tumor extracted succeessfully in June. Afterwards he underwent four cycles of chemotherapy. Last week he claimed to be cancer free. Neither Chavez nor the government have revealed the exact type and location of the cancer.
The significance of Hernandez in Venezuelan culture is, of course, not lost on Chavez, who launched “Mision Jose Gregorio Hernandez”, an ambitious social program designed to provide victims of catastrophic diseases such as cancer with free medical care. The government claims “Mision Jose Gregorio” has helped over 300,000 Venezuelans since it began in March 2008.