Monday, May 1, 2023, 00:04
The capital of the Vega Baja has always dragged behind it the reputation of devout, of a city of priests and seminarians. Even a famous song by the Orihuela tenor Pedro Terol agreed to baptize the sacred episcopal seat of the people of Alicante as ‘Orihuela del Señor’. An affectionate nickname that one would think that, in these secular times, would have lost part of its devout essence. But the truth is that, despite the lack of vocations, the Oriolan cloisters show the robustness of the regular clergy of the city, surely, with more churches per inhabitant in Spain. 83 religious, monks and nuns still guard the temples closed to the contemplative life.
And that last century saw the loss of communities such as the Mercedarians, whose temple was erected on the current Museum of Holy Week, or the Capuchin, which today gives its name to the neighborhood located between Rabaloche and San Francisco. The last male community made up of eight Franciscans today in charge of caring for the convent of Santa Ana came from this last neighborhood.
Among the five remaining communities, three of them are cloistered and two others are active. The most numerous, by far, is the Carmelite with no less than 40 sisters. They are followed by the Dominicans (12), Poor Clares (6) and Augustinians (6). There would also be the seven nuns of the Pro Ecclesia Sancta Congregation. The last to settle in Orihuela, they agreed in 2018 to take over the monastery of Las Salesas, which had been empty for five years.
Special mention has to be made of the other nuns in the city who, far from residing in large monasteries, do so in schools for which they carry out teaching tasks. In the Nuestra Señora del Carmen school there are five sisters, in Jesús María there are eight (five in the San Agustín campus and three in San Isidro), in San José Obrero there are four Teresian sisters and in Santo Domingo they reside Four female disciples of Jesus.
Prayer, study and work
All of them governed by a strict agenda where time for prayer, study and work prevail, a good part of the convents carry out their charitable work and their economic support thanks to initiatives such as confectionery. Such is the case of the Dominicans. The inhabitants of the Monastery of the Holy Trinity are also famous for their ‘tortadas’. «They like it very much. I think that what they value most is that they are handmade. In fact, in an account book from the year 1617 it is stated that our predecessors bought large quantities of flour and almonds”, says Sister María Luisa.
However, she is concerned about the high age of most of the sisters. «There is a low birth rate in families and society has lost sight of the notions of sin and of God. And so it is very difficult for young people to approach. People drown immediately, “explains the Dominican as possible reasons.
Even so, he says, he has no doubt that a convent does great good for society. «In the human, we are an example that different people can live happily and in peace. And, socially, we serve society as a whole, whether they are believers or not.
This is also what Father Fernando Cuenca believes. Head of the Oriolan Franciscans, he says that, despite this social secularization, he has never stopped perceiving that affection towards them. “At the same time that Santo Domingo was built for those who had access to culture, our convent was built, which has always had a humble soul, to be open to all the people.”
A spirit that, in addition, they keep intact thanks to the alliance that unites them to have the honor of taking care of the image of the Patron, Our Father Jesus. “His procession has always been that of the huertanos and, although there are not so many anymore, that bond of union is still very valid in the districts and nearby towns.”
The bishop returns the Major Seminary to Mount San Miguel
Beyond the regular clergy, the secular clergy also seem to be in good health, especially when the bishop, José Ignacio Munilla, has decided to unify the headquarters of the Major Seminary in Orihuela after his departure in the 1960s. A decision that, the prelate explained, responds to the fact that Mount San Miguel is the place “most suitable for community life in the parameters in which the Church asks us that candidates for the priesthood be educated.” The seminarian family of the Diocese started this course with 50 members. Of them, 17 are part of the Minor Seminary in Orihuela, where they study from ESO to Baccalaureate. To these should be added 25 young people, closer to ordination, who today study on horseback between Orihuela and the Theologate of Alicante. Its origin is also uneven: Mutxamel, San Vicente, Tibi, Orihuela, Desamparados, Alicante, Elche, Callosa de Segura, Alfàs del Pi, Villena, Aspe, Catral, Castalla, Albatera, San Juan, Elda and Callosa d’Ensarrià .
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