As in the rest of Spain, the majority religion in the Canary Islands is the Catholic Church. The Catholic religion has been the majority since the Conquest of the Canary Islands in the fifteenth century. This religion would largely replace the Canarian aboriginal religion through the prohibition of the latter and syncretism. According to a survey conducted in 2019, Canary Islands is the fifth 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.
In the Canary Islands there are also minorities of other religions, such as Islam, Evangelical Churches, Hinduism, Afro-American religion, Chinese Religions, Buddhism, Baháʼí Faith and Judaism, 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:
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:
76.7% Catholics
5.8% Non-believers
8.1% Atheists
6.3% Agnostics
2.8% Other religions
Canarian aboriginal religion
The original religion practiced by the native or aboriginal peoples of the archipelago (Guanches) was a belief of animistic and polytheistic type, with a strong presence of astral cult.
This religiosity sacralized certain places, mainly rock and mountains, such as the volcano Teide in Tenerife, the Idafe Rock in La Palma, the Bentayga Rock in Gran Canaria or the mountain of 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. 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 Christianity in the islands dates from 1351, the year Pope Clement VI created the Bishopric of the Islands of Fortune or Bishopric of Telde on the island of Gran Canaria. The Bishopric of Telde was basically a project of evangelization of the Canary Islands by 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.
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. 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. This bishopric was abolished in 1431, just seven years after it was created.