From the moment the shrine of the Virgin of Regla was established, it became a center of piety, and people came from the most remote places to pay homage to her.  It was first added to the churches of Havana by order of Fray Gerónimo Valdés in 1706. In 1708 two altars were added to the church.

On December 26, 1714, at the request of the Shrine's Chaplain, Don José Ruiz López de Salazar, to the Havana Cabildo, Our Lady of Regla was sworn in as Patron and Protector Saint of Havana Bay,

During the ceremony, amidst a crowd of regular prelates and priests, the senior councilor Marquis of Casa Torres placed a gilded silver key that symbolizes San Cristóbal de La Habana, the insignia of the Holy Arms, and the coat of arms of the city of Regla delivered to the bishop Fray Juan Lazo, who placed all the objects at the feet of the Virgin of Regla. While this was happening, countless festive demonstrations broke out: the fortresses and ships anchored in the bay fired artillery salutes, the bells rang out incessantly.

On October 29, 1717, at the request of Mr. Gonzalo Vaquedano, who had been elected prosecutor of the Supreme Council of the Indies, and previously a judge of the Royal Court of Lima, and with great celebration, the Blessed Sacrament was placed in the church for the first time. The Mass was celebrated with great solemnity and joy for eight days. It was undoubtedly a time of great triumph for the sanctuary, as nothing existed in Regla at that date. There were only a few rooms to accommodate the devotees next to the church.

The church's size was expanded in a very short time. An arched portal was built over the main door facing north, and the nave was lengthened to the south. The main chapel was also built, which would also serve as a tabernacle and altar to the Virgin. The rooms and the inn, where the devotees who attended the sanctuary spent the night, as well as all those who went there on pilgrimage, were enlarged. Two cloisters were created: one for those who came to pray and another for guests and pilgrims. A room was also built that would serve as the chaplain's permanent residence.

The church played a significant role in the establishment and growth of today's Regla municipality. For example, a 70-year-old, one-eyed woman named Zeferina obtained permission from the landowners to build a hut near the church and sell food and cooking pots to pilgrims who came to worship. This small-scale trade attracted the attention of other vendors, and gradually, shops began to open in the town.

During those years, the sanctuary had ten brothers called "Ermitaños de Regla (Hermits of Regla)". They sported enormous beards and wore brown woolen habits with tight collars and sleeves, fastened at the waist with a coarse belt. They observed the statutes given to them by bishop Fray Juan Lazo under the direction of a chaplain.

There was also a brotherhood of priests and lay people under the name of the Santa Concordia de Nuestra Señora Regla (Holy Concord of Our Lady of the Rule), founded in 1734, granting graces and indulgences to the devotees enrolled in it.

The sanctuary was supported by alms and bequests from the most privileged devotees. This covered the chaplain's salary, the clothing and maintenance of the hermit brothers, and the services of the church, which by then was richly decorated.

In 1762, facing the threat of an English invasion, the priest of Regla was forced to personally transport the image of Our Lady of Regla and her jewels on horseback to the Church of Calvary on the borders of Managua (currently Arroyo Naranjo). Indeed, the English occupied the church shortly thereafter.

The building is known to have undergone numerous modifications over the years. Renovations were carried out throughout the 18th century, and later, in the 19th century, Bishop Juan Díaz de Espada y Landa himself sponsored one, specifically in 1805. On October 1, 1805 Bishop José de Espada y Fernández de Landa declared the sanctuary as the parish church and appointed Father José María Cortés y Salas as its first pastor.

The current church was completed primarily with the help of the devotees of the Virgin in September 1811. It was baptized by Father Gonzalo Herrera.

In 1818 the tower and the neoclassical façade were finished, thanks to the work of the mathematician Pedro Abad Villarreal, and the builder Don Pedro Justiniani.

With the completion of the church building, social life began to revive in Regla. Black women were making sweets and other foods to sell to those who came to the fair. Animals were killed as offerings and distributed. Everyone participated in the community. Hosted by the chaplain, tables were set for the devotees of Our Lady of Regla and high-ranking officials from the city of Havana took part in these events.

On September 7, 1817, the renowned Cuban priest and patriot Venerable Félix Varela y Morales preached from the church's pulpit.

On September 6, 1885, the tiled brick vault that adorns the presbytery with 105 laminated rosettes was inaugurated. At the time of the Parish priest Miguel Pons y Pons, the Carrara marble floor was laid and the staircase of the presbytery was built, in addition to the semicircular doors with stained glass windows representing the 4 evangelists.

On February 24, 1956 the statue of the Virgin Mary was canonically crowned in the Holy See Cathedral of Havana (Catedral de la Purísima Concepción de María) by the Archbishop of Havana, His Eminence Cardinal Manuel Arteaga y Betancourt, in the name of the Holy Father Pius XII, who conveyed the petitions to the Holy See made by the parish priest Ángel Pérez Varela. The Virgin Mary's crown was made primarily from the offerings of the Cuban people.

On August 11, 1965 the the Sanctuary was declared a National Monument.

On July 8, 1986 the Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta visited the temple on her first visit to Cuba.

On February 24, 1987, in the year of Regla's third centenary, the Archbishop of Havana, Msgr. Jaime Lucas Ortega Alamino, consecrated the altar and the church. The relics placed on the altar are those of Saint Simplicio.

On November 30, 1987, at the request of the Archbishop of Havana, the Bishops of Cuba declared the sanctuary a National Shrine, in recognition of the devotion to the Virgin of Regla, which has spread from here throughout Cuba and is a daily center of pilgrimage.

The Iglesia de Nuestra Señora Regla, officially Santuario Nacional de Regla, is one of the most important buildings in Regla which is one of Havana's 15 municipalities.

The church is dedicated to the Virgin of Regla. It should be explained here that Our Lady of Regla, otherwise known as Our Lady of the Rule and The Virgin of Regla, is a Marian apparition of the Catholic Church venerated in various Hispanic countries such as: Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Canary Islands, Mexico, and Spain. In contrast to other Marian apparitions, she is typically depicted with dark skin.

HISTORY

The story of the Virgin of Regla that the inhabitants of Regla worshipped dates back to the 5th century. As in almost every place in the world, the Virgin Mary is venerated under a specific name or devotion. Here too, legend and history intermingle.

Saint Augustine (360-436), who lived in the city of Hippo in northern Algeria in the 5th century, founded the order known as the Augustinians. Members of this order, the Augustinians, followed a Rule (Regla) or set of norms devised by the saint himself for the proper following of Jesus Christ. The Catholic priest, considered one of the most prolific in literature, was a highly cultured figure. According to legend, one day, he received a revelation: an angel commanded that the statue of the Virgin be carved from wood, beautifully decorated, and placed in his oratory.

The priest then ordered the figure of the Virgin to be carved in black, in keeping with the complexion of the Africans. A disciple who wanted the sanctuary rebuilt and a statue of the Virgin be worshipped in accordance with the revelation received by St. Augustine, accomplished this by using the finest dark cedar he could find. Thus, a statue of the black-skinned Virgin Mary began to be venerated in the shrine at Tagaste, St. Augustine's birthplace.

When the Arabs invide the North Africa and sack Tagaste, a deacon named Cypriano rescued the statue of the Virgin Mary and, despite a powerful storm, transported it on a small vessel across the Strait of Gibraltar to Spain. This event is considered the first miracle of the Virgin of Regla: Barbarian invasions were unable to defeat her. In the following years, the tradition made the Virgin the Patron Saint of sailors, as a result of having brought the ship safely to the sea despite the storm. September 8, coinciding with the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, also began to be celebrated as the Feast of the Virgin de la Regla.

Cipriano arrived in Chipiona, a town in Cádiz, with the statue and delivered it to the abbot of the Convent of Hermits of San Agustín. Because Andalusia was under the occupation of the Saracens at the time, the statue could not occupy its deserved place on the altar in the convent. The priest kept the statue's existence a secret until the grave. As the statue had been skillfully hidden in a nearby well to protect it from the Arabs, no one knew anything about the statue for centuries.

According to another story, a priest of the Convent of Santa María de Regla of Chipiona dreamed that a tall, black-faced woman commanded him to go to the shores of Chipiona to rescue the narrated statue of the Virgin. The woman told him, "Under the tree where you will rest, there will be what you so eagerly seek." Consequently, in 1330, the same priest found her hidden during a walk he was taking with some farmers. The statue was hidden under the ground next to a fig tree.

Don Joaquín Ponce de León, the feudal lord of Chipiona, converted his castle into a monastery for the worship of the statue. However, only the head and body of the Virgin statue remained.

In 1590, the entire statue was covered with a thick plate of silver, resembling armor, leaving only the head uncovered.

It's unclear how much of what's been said so far is true, but the earliest archive information about the Virgin statue in question dates back to 1365. According to this, this sculpture in Convent of Santa María de Regla in Chipiona is carved from dark fibrous wood, is seated, and measures 62 cm high. It is in the Romanesque style, a typical feature of the Black Madonna.

Since the 16th century, the Virgin have been placed on a silver frame.

During the Spanish colonization of Cuba, slave owners attempted to impose Catholicism on their slaves. This initiated a process of syncretism and intercultural interaction in Cuba that continues until today. When the believers of Yoruba entered the church, they identified the appearance of the images they were forced to worship with the deities of their own cult. This signified a form of preservation of the Yoruba religion. This process has progressed quite rapidly. The appearance of the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, the patron saint of Cuba, and the appearance of the Virgen La Regla occurred at the same time, a little over a century after the Spanish conquest of Cuba.

On 3 March 1687, Police Chief Don Pedro Recio de Oquendo granted the land of the demolished San Pedro de Guaicanamar sugar mill and the land that he used for the cultivation of wheat to build a shrine dedicated to the Virgin of Regla. It was four caballerías of land, on a hill looking to the sea at the point called Camaco.

Manuel Antonio, who was born in Lima/Peru and was better known by the nickname El Peregrino (Pilgrim) , was in charge of building the first church. Soon, El Peregrino received the necessary permission from the ecclesiastical and secular authorities, specifically from Bishop Diego Evelino de Compostela, to build that small oratory with a thatched roof on the narrowest part of a strip of land adjacent to Havana Bay. Construction was completed on December 16, 1688, and Manuel Antonio placed an image of the black-skinned Virgin represented by an oil painting which was worshiped in Regla. This is the origin of this shrine and this town.

On January 16, 1688 the oil painting of the dark-skinned Virgin began to be worshipped in the simple temple.

On October 24, 1692 the storm San Rafael devastated the shrine. Fearful of the storm, Asturian Juan de Conyedo vowed to build a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary, if he would survive. After the storm was over, Don Juan enlisted the help of a resident and merchant from the city of Regla, named Alonso Sánchez Cabello, who he undertook the project in 1693. So, the second temple was rebuilt  on this very spot, using more substantial materials. It was completed one year later and consisted of three rooms for lodging. It also served as a home for the alms collectors.

On September 8, 1694, Sergeant Major Don Pedro de Aranda y Avellaneda, nicknamed "Castellano de la Punta", donated to the hermitage the statue of the Virgin Mary that he had brought with him on his return from a trip to Madrid.