Cuban Saint Mystifies Catholic, Communist Leaders

Devotees look at objects left behind by others asking Cuba's revered Virgin of Charity for health, love and success inside the church of El Cobre, outside Santiago in southeastern Cuba, Monday, June 26, 2006. (Javier Galeano - AP)

Gifts for this Cuban version of the Virgin Mary are also accepted with open arms. A treasure chest contains precious jewels donated to the Virgin over the years, some of which were used for her intricate crown, Rodriguez Rey says.

Ernest Hemingway gave the Virgin the Nobel Prize he won for his literature soon after writing "The Old Man and the Sea" in his Havana hacienda. The mother of Fidel and Raul Castro left behind a small golden guerrilla fighter in the 1950s as her sons battled the government of former dictator Fulgencio Batista ahead of the Cuban Revolution.

The brothers survived: Cuban President Fidel Castro turns 80 in August and Defense Minister Raul Castro, his designated successor, just celebrated his 75th birthday.

More modern-day objects include replicas of rafts, which began appearing in the 1990s as Cubans increasingly took to the seas for the risky voyage to a new life in the United States, and, more recently, objects related to imprisoned political opponents of Castro's government.

A black-and-white poster showing the shadow of a man looking out behind a set of prison bars asks the Virgin for "the liberation of political prisoners." Pins and keychains with photos of activists imprisoned in a massive government crackdown on dissidents in the spring of 2003 line one table.

In Cuba's highly controlled society, it's rare to see these images outside the homes of dissidents or their relatives.

But the Catholic Church has gained some autonomy from the government over the years, and, according to the priest at El Cobre church, the Virgin belongs to all Cubans.

The tradition has become "so Cuban, so integrated in mainstream culture," Rodriguez Rey says. "Even members of the military come here."