Emotion on the surface at dawn this Friday in Cartagena. The port city kicked off Holy Week with the first procession in Spain, that of El Socorro, which left at 3:30 am from the surroundings of the old Cathedral.
In rigorous silence, only interrupted by the muted drums that marked the passage of the thirds of lighting and the bearers of the thrones, the processionists of the Blessed Virgin of Soledad del Consuelo and of the Blessed and Real Cristo del Socorro went through the streets and flooding them with the solemnity that characterizes this penitential via crucis.
After the scapulars were imposed by the older brother, Manuel Martínez Guillén, and the chaplain Lázaro Gomariz on the new brothers and authorities who joined the procession this year, the processionists took positions to start this particular Way of the Cross with an almost medieval aesthetic.
The thrones traveled, on the shoulders of their bearers, Concepción street to San Francisco street and from there they moved to the church of Santa María de Gracia, the first penitential station in which an offering was made to the former patron saint of Cartagena, the Virgin of Rosell.
The procession then continued towards Calle Honda and Plaza San Francisco, to reach the Basílica de la Caridad, the second penitential station, before the patron saint of Cartagena, a point at which emotion overflowed among the faithful and processionists. It was there that the Eucharist was celebrated at the edge of 6:00 a.m. and the first mass on Friday of Sorrows in all of Spain.
Afterwards, the faithful headed towards Plaza San Ginés to return back to the surroundings of the old Cathedral, where they arrived with the first rays of the morning sun.
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