The She-Devil and the Covered Knight bury Christ in Orihuela

There are a thousand reasons that make Holy Week in Orihuela unique, but if something makes it especially unique it is its Holy Saturday afternoon. There is nothing similar to it, no matter where you look in the entire national geography. Yesterday, again, The She-Devil and the Covered Knight joined their steps with those of Saint John the Evangelist, the Virgin of Solitude and that prodigious Recumbent Christ of Séiquer Zanón to give a Christian burial to Jesus, the Nazarene, king of the Jews.

The day began with the reception that this man who never lets go of his top hat offered in the courtyard of the old Oriolana university, current Santo Domingo Diocesan School. Antonio Martínez-Canales, president of Pilares de la Soledad and appointed to embody the knight in mourning, began his speech by thanking the City Council for the distinction. “This generous and significant gesture has moved me deeply.”

Martínez-Canales wanted to touch on current local issues. The first was that consortium promoted by the City Council for the recovery of historical heritage. In this sense, he thanked the president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, for the words during the inauguration of the exhibition that the Historical Board is hosting in the Episcopal Palace. The head of the Consell committed the participation of the Valencian Government. A duty that Martínez-Canales described as a “moral, real, historical and economic obligation.”

The Covered Knight also took advantage of his presence in Santo Domingo to once again evoke that frustrated dream of returning to the 'Escorial de Levante' the university activity that it hosted for three centuries. His dream, he said, is that Santo Domingo “completes its undeniable and valuable educational work with children and young people, expanding and completing it with higher studies and with the creation of an international, inter-community and regional university campus, where, in addition to the universities of Alicante and Elche, as they already are, the rest of the universities in the Valencian Community.

The retired engineer also wanted to claim for the Vega Baja “the water that belongs to us.” “The annual volume of rainfall in Spain is sufficient to cover the country's water needs,” he indicated, while encouraging those present to attend the international water congress that Orihuela will host in May.

As a man of “Christian values” and “passionate about Holy Week in Oriola”, the Covered Knight evoked what, in his view, magnifies the Burial procession. «A procession that, more than a procession, is simply a funeral. So human that it can seem divine, where good and horrible evil become beauty; in which, because it is old, it is unique and, as unique, it will sooner rather than later be World Heritage. A burial that, due to its smell of the past, should be a firm root for the future.

He leaves the hallway

With loud applause, the man who has accompanied La Soledad so many times at the funeral of his son, led the parade to the church of Santa Justa. The images came from there, while La Diablesa did the same from the hallway of the City Hall, her temporary home since last summer.

The procession advanced through López Pozas and entered the Plaza del Salvador from Calle Mayor. The Labradors' Cross and its diabolical female waited outside as Nicolás de Bussy's magnificent work was banned from sacred ground.

Martínez-Canales made the traditional walk through the vaults of the Cathedral with the black banner in hand. Thus until he reached the altar, where the bishop, José Ignacio Munilla, was waiting for him to perform the protocol greeting to the person who holds the highest distinction of Holy Week.

At the exit of the Oriolana seo, the funeral procession finished its return to the bridges and, almost immediately, it was time to wait for twelve o'clock to be able to sing the resurrection of the Messiah as hallelujahs, the finishing touch to an Holy Week. of International Tourist Interest and of universal value.