A legion of faithful accompanies the Faith

Almost no one now remembers that this Christ of Faith, the only one with blue eyes raised to heaven, paraded for many years as if the world suffered from a pandemic. It happened when the Brotherhood of the Faith was still young and it crossed the lonely streets of the center on a Saturday afternoon consecrated by many, rather than admiring the passage of such an imposing carving, to finish their hasty purchases.

But that has changed, just as the lives of those who populate this planet have also changed in the last two years. And this Saturday, the procession that departs from the Capuchin church passed through a veritable legion of Murcians who wanted to rediscover their longed-for Holy Week. Everything was new for this procession, including the passage through Paseo Alfonso X, already successfully pedestrianized and which further emphasized the solemnity of the penance season.

It was barely a whisper. There are those who assure that it was a slight ray of light that, like every Holy Saturday, takes out a password in the Faith to open the friar procession. But others say it’s a lie, that it was the cursed sigh that, at mid-afternoon over the Capuchins, announces the end of Holy Week. And they are right.

Because these days of Passion have an expiration date, in just eight days. That is why you have to hurry and savor the descent of this Christ of Dorrego who, before raising him on his cross, lowers himself to the platform at the door of the church. He tinkles the water in the La Redonda fountain. Some drops fly decisively towards the face of the Lord, who raises his eyes to heaven, perhaps looking for spring.

The friar procession advances with no banner greater than the cross of Saint Francis of Assisi, wrapped in the symbols of the Passion on a velvet cushion. And it advances rhythmically, so collected that it surprises those who pass through this Murcia of shops eager for vacations.

The Christ does not advance alone from the Redonda. He is accompanied by Santa María de los Ángeles, another splendid carving by Yuste Navarro that dazzles when opening a procession.

On this procession of friars’ girdles, austere but indispensable already on such a longed-for Saturday, as every year, the blue eyes of Christ shine, which as it advances through the center of Alfonso X avenue, fortunately now without traffic, it claims the attention of those who cross your path. Capuchin procession on Saturday afternoon, which will border on the Christ of Charity, that of Santa Catalina, with whom he shares Nazarene afternoon and evening.