Religion in the Canary Islands

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Religion in the Canary Islands (2019)[1]

  
Catholicism (76.7%)
  Atheism (8.1%)
  Agnosticism
(6.3%)
  Indifferent/Non-believer (5.8%)
  Other religions (2.8%)
  Unanswered (0.3%)

As in the rest of

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. 76.7% of the population is Catholic.[1]

In the Canary Islands there are also minorities of other religions, such as

Afro-American religion,[4] Chinese Religions,[4] Buddhism,[4] Baháʼí Faith[4] and Judaism,[4] as well as the existence in the archipelago of a form of autochthonous neo-paganism, the Church of the Guanche People. The Canary Islands is currently one of the regions with the greatest religious diversity in Spain and Europe
.

Religious self-definition

According to a Metroscopy survey of 2011, which conducts social studies:[5]

  • 77% of the Canaries consider themselves believers in any of the religions
  • 19% are atheists
  • Of the respondents, 71% of the islanders identify with some religion
  • 28% do not identify with any religion

Therefore, there is a 6% difference between people who identify with some religion and those who believe in some divinity.

According to the Autonomous Barometer of the CIS, the distribution of beliefs in 2019 was as follows:[1]

  • 76.7% Catholics
  • 5.8% Non-believers
  • 8.1% Atheists
  • 6.3% Agnostics
  • 2.8% Other religions

Canarian aboriginal religion

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
: possibly represents a divinity of fertility.

The original religion practiced by the native or aboriginal peoples of the archipelago (

astral cult
.

This religiosity sacralized certain places, mainly rock and mountains, such as the volcano

Tindaya in Fuerteventura. They also held sacred the trees, among which the drago and the pine stand out. There was a pantheon of different gods and ancestral spirits; among the main gods for example of the island of Tenerife, we could highlight: Achamán (god of heaven and supreme creator), Chaxiraxi (mother goddess later identified with the Virgin of Candelaria), Magec (god of the sun) and Guayota (the demon) among many other gods and ancestral spirits. Also practiced was the cult of the dead and the mummification of corpses, as on the island of Tenerife where it reached greater perfection.[6]
They also fashioned clay or stone idols.

Catholicism

The Christianization of the Canary Islands is linked to the process of conquest, although the presence of Christian elements in the archipelago dates back at least a century before its incorporation into the Crown of Castile.

The first news that speaks of the introduction of

Mallorcan and Catalan missionaries, which failed because of raids by European pirates which angered the natives. This situation led to the martyrdom of thirteen Catalan hermit missionaries who were thrown by the aborigines to the abyss of Jinámar in 1393.[7]

18th-century painting depicting the Virgin of Candelaria between two Guanche shepherds and the mencey Acaimo of Güímar. The original image of this Virgin was found by the Guanches on the beaches of Tenerife; probably the Christian missionaries would have taken it there.

Later the Norman conquerors Jean de Béthencourt and Gadifer de la Salle arrived on the island of Lanzarote. 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.

In 1424, Pope

Martin V erected in Betancuria the Bishopric of Fuerteventura, which encompassed all the Canary Islands except the island of Lanzarote.[9] This bishopric was abolished in 1431, just seven years after it was created.[9]

In the mid-fifteenth century there is evidence of the presence of Christian missionaries in the western Canary Islands, because around 1450 in the area of the modern municipality of

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. The name of the diocese was changed to be called Diocese Canariense-Rubicense, making reference to the island where its headquarters would be from that moment, that is, Gran Canaria, but retaining in its name its origin, the Rubicón.[7]

From here the Christianization of the islands of La Palma and Tenerife would begin. The Christianization of the Canary Islands was quick and complete. Insular Catholicism has given two saints to the Church up to the present:

José de Anchieta (1534-1597)[11] and Peter of Saint Joseph de Betancur (1626-1667).[12] Both, born on the island of Tenerife, were missionaries respectively in Brazil and Guatemala
.

In the nineteenth century a new bishopric was founded in the Canary Islands, the Diocese of San Cristobal de La Laguna in 1819.[13] Although the origins of creating a diocese based in Tenerife began shortly after the conquest of the Canary Islands, it was the same Alonso Fernández de Lugo (conqueror of this island) who in 1513 asked the Court to erect a new diocese on the island of Tenerife. However, this project would always have the opposition of the Grancanarian bishop.[14] From 1819, the Canary Islands was divided into two dioceses: The Diocese Canariense-Rubicense that encompasses the eastern islands (Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote) and the Diocese of San Cristóbal of La Laguna or Nivariense that encompasses the western islands (Tenerife, La Gomera, La Palma and El Hierro).

In the Canary Islands, religious devotions of great tradition in history and culture are particularly important, such as the

romerias and the tradition of the bajadas
of some images of the island patrons worshiped in the archipelago.

Other religions

Churches in Tenerife advertising 2008

The strategic situation of the archipelago on the commercial routes and its condition as a bridge of union between

Protestants.[2]

Other Christian denominations

All Saints' Church, Puerto de la Cruz (Tenerife). It was the first Anglican church built in the Canary Islands.

The presence of

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and to a lesser extent in Santa Cruz de La Palma.[15]

In the city of Puerto de la Cruz in the north of the island of Tenerife would be built at the end of the nineteenth century the first Anglican church in the Canaries, the Church of All Saints. In addition, this city also has the oldest Anglican cemetery in the archipelago. Later, others were built, such as the Anglican Chapel of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the Church of San Jorge in Santa Cruz de Tenerife (today a Catholic church).

Regarding

Salvation Army.[2] The Evangelical Council of the Canary Islands is the federation that brings together the majority of the various evangelical churches existing in the archipelago. There are also national churches of the Scandinavian countries such as the Church of Sweden, the Church of Norway, the German Evangelical Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland.[2]

The Eastern Orthodox Church is also present, although it is the Christian community that has most recently established itself in the archipelago, mostly at the beginning of the 21st century,[2] including the Russian Orthodox Church, the Romanian Orthodox Church, and the new Orthodox Church of the Canary Islands which is a small community within the Spanish Orthodox Church under the jurisdiction of the Serbian Orthodox Church and in communion with the universal Orthodox Church. Its headquarters is in Puerto de la Cruz in Tenerife.[16]

There are also communities of

Arrecife
. There is also a small group on the island of La Palma.

Islam

Ecumenical Templo in Playa del Inglés (Gran Canaria).

Islam is currently the second religion most practiced in the archipelago after Catholicism.[5] In 2022, there are 80.171 Muslims in the Canary Islands.[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

See also: History of the Jews in the Canary Islands

San Cristobal de La Laguna, Tenerife, was a descendant of Jewish converts.[21]

Just as in the rest of Spain, the Jews would suffer persecution from the

Sephardic exile origin in the Canary Islands began to settle in the islands in the middle of the 20th century.[20]

Oriental religions

Masonic Temple of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

The Canary Islands is the region with the largest community of

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife
, but have spread out.

Tibetan Buddhist denominations are more prominent within the Buddhist community. In 2005, two Canarian Buddhist converts were recognized as Dharma teachers by the orthodox Buddhist institutions, Francisco Mesa (Denkō Mesa) and Alejandro Torrealba (Acharya Dharmamitra Dhiraji), as lay spiritual leaders of Buddhist centers in Tenerife and Gran Canaria respectively.[2]

There is also a presence of

traditional Chinese religions among immigrants from this country, and also members of the Baháʼí Faith.[2]

African American religions

Due to the strong link existing with

Palo Mayombe and Venezuelan Spiritism.[2]

Other

Franco regime.[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] and the Order of the Solar Temple,[24] among others.

Especially singular is the Church of the Guanche People, a neo-pagan religion founded in 2001 that tries to implement the Canarian aboriginal religion as an ethnic religion in the current Canarian society.[25]

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Religion in the Canary Islands.
  1. ^ a b c Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (Centre for Sociological Research) (October 2019). "Macrobarómetro de octubre 2019, Banco de datos - Document 'Población con derecho a voto en elecciones generales y residente en España, Canarias (aut.)" (PDF) (in Spanish). p. 23. Retrieved 4 February 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Religiones entre continentes. Minorías religiosas en Canarias. Editado por la Universidad de La Laguna" (PDF).
  3. ^ Información turística de España
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h "Un 5% de canarios profesa una religión minoritaria".
  5. ^ a b "El Islam es la segunda religión más practicada en Canarias".
  6. ^ "Las momias guanches más antiguas de Canarias se conservan en Tenerife". Canarias7. Informaciones Canarias, S.A. 8 June 2012.
  7. ^ a b San Marcial del Rubicón y los Obispados de Canarias
  8. ^ La Iglesia en las Islas Canarias. Editado por la Diócesis de Canarias
  9. ^ a b El Cisma de Occidente y el Obispado de Fuerteventura
  10. ^
    ISBN 84-500-7108-9
    .
  11. ^ "José de Anchieta, Santo".
  12. ^ "Pedro de San José Betancurt, Santo".
  13. ^ Darías y Padrón, Dacio V.; Rodríguez Moure, José; Benítez Inglott, Luis (1957). Historia de la religión en Canarias (in Spanish). Santa Cruz de Tenerife: Cervantes. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  14. ^ "La Diócesis de San Cristóbal de La Laguna en los inicios del siglo XIX: el Obispo Folgueras Sión, el Cabildo Catedral y la jurisdicción eclesiástica :: Boletín Millares Carlo". mdc.ulpgc.es. Retrieved 2020-03-18.
  15. ^ Aglicanismo en Canarias Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  16. ^ Iglesia ortodoxa de Serbia en Tenerife
  17. ^ "Noticias de Tenerife - La Provincia - Diario de Las Palmas". www.laprovincia.es. Retrieved 2020-03-18.
  18. ^ "Muslim population in Spain by nationality 2022". Statista. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  19. ^ "Congreso de inauguración de la Federación Islamica de Canarias (Tenerife) - Webislam". www.webislam.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-03-18.
  20. ^ a b "Judíos de Canarias. Historia de los judíos de Canarias. Hoy 30 de Mayo es el día de Canarias. — Español". www.efemeridespedrobeltran.com. Retrieved 2020-03-18.
  21. ^ NULL (2017-06-08). "San José de Anchieta - 9 de junio". ZENIT - Espanol (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-03-18.
  22. ^ a b "El templo masónico, bien de interés cultural. eldia.es". 2019-06-11. Archived from the original on 2019-06-11. Retrieved 2020-03-18.
  23. ^ Cienciólogos en Tenerife
  24. ^ Rosales, Jaime Rubio (1993). Misterio en Ripoche Street (in Spanish). el autor.
    ISBN 978-84-604-4766-5
    .
  25. ^ Ramos-Martín, Josué. "La Iglesia del Pueblo Guanche: consideraciones metodológicas". Morales Padrón, F. (Ed.) XVIII Coloquio de Historia Canario-Americana, 2008, pp. 1608-1630.
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