Holy Monday has a special light in Cartagena even when the sun is not shining. It will be because the day is blessed by the Virgen de la Piedad, who is a purebred maraja but she also gathers processionists from California, resurrected and Socorro under her immense cloak. She sisters all of them equally with all that devotee who comes her way on the day of the promises.
Last night there were thousands who publicly declared their faith before her. Eyes moistened by emotion, lips that whispered prayers and hands that drew the sign of salvation for Christians. It was what abounded in all the streets, crowded with people for a couple of hours before the procession began. Especially at the door of Santa María de Gracia, which was also abuzz in advance. The public tried to take a good place to see her get out of it and join immediately behind the security line that the local police always form.
The procession of the promises of the Blessed Virgin of Mercy was a continuous emotion since it left Santa María de Gracia one minute before the announced time, nine o’clock, until it was picked up at one in the morning in the same temple. As is tradition, hundreds of people from Cartagena who see the Patron Saint of Cartagena in her followed in her footsteps in compliance with offerings, penance or gratitude. There was everything.
Numerous groups of Nazarenes filled the streets of downtown Cartagena with purple color among the tercios of grenadiers and penitents
The parade began with the mako indents on the ramp, ahead of the accompanying group of the banner of the brotherhood and the first of the five legions of Nazarenes. With an extraordinary night, without sanitary restrictions, entire families came out to accompany the Virgin dressed in the purple habit.
The youngest grenadiers filed past, walled in by two large groups of Nazarenes, opening the way for the penitents of the Holy Chalice and their car with a horn. And behind them more Nazarenes continued to pour out, filling entire streets with their presence. The one in the Canyon, for example. Then the third of penitents of the Holy Chalice paraded with the old horn car and the grenadiers in that introductory part of the procession. Because the protagonism of the night corresponds to the Mercy. The first of his tercios that the spectators saw was the one that accompanies the emblematic throne, which is a goldsmith’s work that represents the dome of the Basilica of Charity on the shield of the group: a heart with six stabbed daggers. He paraded with the music performed by the band Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, from Molinos Marfagones.
Then the considered titular third did it, the one who dresses in gray on blue, accompanied by the Santa Cecilia de Pozo Estrecho Society and opening the way to the throne in which a hundred men carry on their shoulders the Virgin and the Lord carved by José Capuz in 1925. As usual, the altar was profusely decorated with white roses that curdled its cartouches and enhanced the field of candles, protected by blue lampshades, on which the sculptural group sits.
Mendoza, in memory
Before getting under way, the group of portapasos whose president is José Jesús Guillén paid a simple and warm tribute to one of his brothers, José Luis Mendoza, who was president of the UCAM until his death in January. Since yesterday the throne has had a small plaque in memory of him and some of his children, as well as his brother Vicente, general director of the institution, participated in the procession as a tribute.
A peal of bells announced at ten o’clock at night to the entire public that the Virgin was already on the street and was preparing to collect the prayers of her children for another year. Some came to her sung, in the form of an arrow, like the one performed at the Puerta de Murcia by the Huelva flamenco artist Mari Ángeles Cruzado, the last winner of the national contest organized by the Agrupación de Portapasos de la Piedad.
On her pilgrimage through Cartagena, also accompanied by the processional marches ‘Plegaria’ and ‘Virgen del Tura’, performed by the Sauces band, the Virgen de la Piedad met the Patron Saint of the city in La Serreta. Her pasasos complied with tradition in that place and deposited at the feet of La Caridad the famous bouquet of black roses in compliance with a custom started in 1947 in memory of those brave ladies of El Molinete who watched over Ella in years of anger. That memory remains alive. As much as that of the annual blessing of the Pietà to her promises.
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