HOLY WEEK OF LOGROÑO | web-hermandad

THE HOLY WEEK OF LOGROÑO

ORIGINS, ANTIQUITY AND TRADITIONAL ROOT

THE BROTHERHOOD OF LA SANTA VERA CRUZ

The brotherhood of Santa Vera Cruz was founded on March 29, 1537, Holy Thursday, in the "Holy Convent of San Francisco extra walls of the very noble and very loyal City of Logroño." The rule was drafted and ordered to approve the Bishopric. They already had it for the celebration of the Cruz de Mayo.

Since its founding, the confraternity of Santa Vera Cruz had its headquarters in the convent of the Franciscans. The guardian of the convent was, by statute, the chaplain of the brotherhood, and the rest of the Franciscans considered themselves members of it. And there took place on May 28, 1543 the signing of the letter of brotherhood by which the General Minister of the Franciscans, fr. Juan de Calvi, granted to this brotherhood of Santa Vera Cruz and to all the others erected under the same title all the graces and indulgences enjoyed by the Order, which were not few.

Specifically, the headquarters of the brotherhood was in the chapel of Santa Vera Cruz, the first on the right as you entered the temple. This chapel had an independent access from the convent's door. There the fraternity placed an altarpiece with the image of the crucified Holy Christ. This image, holder of the brotherhood, soon aroused devotion in the region; in fact we know that a lamp was permanently burning.

Muy noble y muy leal Ciudad de Logroño.

In time, the needs of the brotherhood became greater and the chapel remained small. Therefore, in 1719 the community gave an adjoining one, dedicated to San Bernardino, a Franciscan saint of deep roots in local history. The layout of the plant of the new chapel, "with more extension, perfection, firmness and beauty", was built by the architects D. José de Soto and D. Martín de Gavirondo, el Mayor. In this chapel the brotherhood kept its processional steps and the brothers, by agreement with the community, had the right to interment in it. By 1723 the work must have been completed, at least inside it. However, it seems that the brotherhood had serious difficulties to defray the expenses of the works because twenty years later it continued to accumulate debts for this concept. Once the total amount of the work was paid and with the purpose of completing the complete remodeling of his chapel, the Vera Cruz commissioned a new altarpiece, more sumptuous, that was in 1779 gilded by the Logroño teachers D. Agustín Angulo and D. Francisco Ruiz.

THE PROCESSION OF HOLY THURSDAY

The brotherhood of the Vera Cruz was in charge of the organization of the procession of Holy Thursday or Thursday of the Supper, as it was known that day in past centuries. And, likewise, from a certain moment, it also plays a prominent role in that of Palm Sunday. Before, during Lent, he had also had his devotional practices, such as the chanting of the Miserere in his chapel on Sunday afternoons with the participation of the Franciscan community.

On Palm Sunday, one of the twelve general processions that took place throughout Logroño took place during the year. It was attended by the City Council, the parish councils and the Collegiate Church of Santa María de la Redonda. Also the bishop when he was present in the city, as was the case, for example, in 1597 when Pedro Manso, who personally took charge of distributing the branches for the procession in the Campo de San Francisco or Coso, adjoining the convent, where the blessing of the bouquets was proceeded, although then the ceremony was moved to the interior of the convent temple.

However, the main procession of the Vera Cruz took place on Holy Thursday in the afternoon, after the Oficio de Tinieblas. On the morning of that day the confreres had to have participated obligatorily in the Mass and in the sermon of the mandate (which the own confraternity paid for) and all should be equally confessed and reconciled among themselves. At dusk, the Franciscan community along with the brotherhood received the Corregidor and the rest of the municipal council "and the Discipline is preached", that is, the sermon in which the disciplinarians were prepared to carry out their penance in a good spirit, so that it was pleasing to God and beneficial to his spiritual health. This sermon was always preached by one of the friars of the convent.

At the end of the sermon of discipline, the procession began, in which all the brothers of the True Cross participated, both those of light and those of discipline. She invited both the Franciscan community and the City Regiment. The City Council provided the "axes of wax that is customary to carry to light the procession of the disciplinarians on Thursday dinner."

The processional cross began, or "high cross where it carries the image of our Redeemer", normally covered with a purple veil and to which two candles illuminated. Behind, in two rows, the brothers of light advanced, carrying the candles or candles that served to illuminate the route, not excessively dark because there was always the benefit of the full moon. In the middle of them were placed, usually two by two, the brothers of scourge or disciplinarians. They wore "rude white linen cloths, made in the manner of a T with their chapel to cover the face and head [to ensure their anonymity] and their backs uncovered, and in front of them a shield of the five wounds and their cord made of esparto or hemp, with its disciplines in the hands ", according to the rules.

We do not know if the brothers of light also wore habit or if, on the contrary, they paraded in their ordinary attire. A reference that appeared in a lawsuit of the year 1555 invites us to think that it might be probable that, at least some brothers of light, also wore tunics, especially if they had to wear some insignia.

In the end, one of the friars carried a medium-sized Crucifix illuminated equally by ciriales, perhaps the own titular image of the brotherhood that throughout the year presided over the altarpiece of his chapel. Over time, once the steps appeared, as we shall say, this Crucifix was carried in turn by the old stewards.

The procession closed the ecclesiastical presidency and the accompaniment of the municipal authorities; concretely, and like Palm Sunday, "the Guardian takes the Corregidor to the right hand". In fact, all the aldermen were obliged by reason of their position to attend this procession, as well as the rest that the corporation attended, "under pain of six ducats to each one that lacks applied to pious works".

Following the order of the procession, it is only necessary to indicate that the rest of the religious went in two rows "singing the Miserere psalm". In order to endow it with a greater solemnity, the chapel of music of the Collegiate Church was also contracted, which the canons did not like too much since, as early as 1570, the Cabildo warned at the approach of Holy Week that "if the singers go to the procession on the night of the Supper is by their will and not by the Cabildo, and it is their account if it hurts them and that at Easter they have to sing in the School. "

The procession left the convent of San Francisco and it was collected again after having entered to the very heart of the city. In all likelihood, the procession would run through the streets of the Jewish quarter to the new Rúa or Herventia (now Calle de Portales) and passing in front of the Colegiata and the Bishop's Palace would return by the street of Caballerías and the alley of San Bartolomé towards the Rúa Mayor, looking for the San Francisco Gate.

Plano General. Logroño Año 1852.

As we have seen, in the beginning the procession had no steps; however, they did not take long to appear. We know, for example, that already in 1573 the brotherhood commissioned the sculptor D. Francisco de Ortigosa, neighbor of San Millán de la Cogolla, and the assembler D. Juan de las Eras an image of Christ tied to the column or Ecce homo to resemblance of what was in one of the chapel of the Colegial de la Redonda, which fit into sixteen ducats. This image was carried in the procession, at least in the mid-eighteenth century, by the brotherhood of St. Crispin, which grouped the shoemakers and had its canonical headquarters also in its own chapel of the Franciscan convent.

Cristo atado a la Columna.

Already since the beginning of the seventeenth century, the brotherhood had, at least, three or four steps more, including a Christ nailed to the Cross, who presided over the altarpiece of the brotherhood in the Franciscan convent church, and an image of the Sorrowful. It also had the passage of the Nazarene. This fact has been recorded indirectly because in 1605 the sculptor D. Pascual Fernandez, giving as guarantor to D. Mateo Ruiz de Cenzano, took charge of the execution of a step of "Christ with the Cross on his back" for the brotherhood of Vera Cruz de Nájera. He had to do it, as stipulated in the contract, following the scheme of what was in Logroño.

It should be noted, also, that in 1627 the Logroño brotherhood of the Vera Cruz agreed with the painter D. Felipe de Arellano a new step "of the seizure of Our Lord Jesus Christ" which consisted of "six figures of paper and canvas, which have be the Savior, Mr. San Pedro and Judas, [which] must be heads, hands and feet (...), two armed executioners and the figure of Malco, who must also be armed, and weapons have of being emptied of paper and canvas ". Finally, it is known that, years later, other steps were incorporated, such as that of the Virgen de la Piedad.

THE BROTHERHOOD OF SANTA CRUZ IN JERUSALEM AND OUR LADY OF SOLITUDE.

The confraternity of Santa Vera Cruz, erected in the convent of San Francisco de Logroño and organizing the procession of disciplinarians of Holy Thursday, came to join another new founded in the convent of Our Lady of Mercy in the last decade of the century XVI under the invocation of "Our Lady of Solitude and Holy Cross in Jerusalem."

This new brotherhood was commissioned from its inception to organize the procession of the Holy Burial on the evening of Good Friday night. The first preserved documentary data refer to the year 1595, when the City Regiment agreed to attend this procession, as they did on the preceding afternoon of Holy Thursday, and also provide the necessary candles in response to "being so poor and the brotherhood of so much devotion.

Shortly afterwards, in 1599, the confraternity already had "a large poplar cross" that carried in the procession, as well as with a work of a recumbent Christ and the image of the Virgin of Solitude. He had his images in the chapel that was at the entrance of the Mercedarian temple, on the right. In 1676 he managed to close it with a fence and, shortly afterwards, in 1682 he bought his property from the religious community, arranging for the sale that the abbots and mayordomos had the right to be buried in his crypt.

It is a certain fact that in the city great devotion was professed to the titular image of this brotherhood, that presided over the altarpiece of the chapel. For example, in 1717, D. Gerónimo Ybañez Zárate, Apostolic Inquisitor of the Court of Logroño, left in his testament a mandate of fifty Masses that were to be celebrated in his chapel before the Virgin of Solitude, "most devout and most devoted Mother who has always been of this his house and humble family ". And he ordered "that the holy image be discovered and the spiders light up, taking the necessary wax from home." As in this one, it is quite usual to check in testaments throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the request for the accompaniment of the brotherhood in the burials.

In addition to the procession of Good Friday, the brotherhood celebrated the celebration of its holder in the month of September. In addition to other cults and the solemn Mass, popular rejoicings were organized, hiring dances as early as 1619 and even bullfighting festivities, as in 1638, when no less than eight bulls were brought. In the same way, the devotion to the Virgin of the Solitude is verified by the times that the city, singularly the farmers, went before her in prayers.

A century later, another significant act would begin in the Semana Santa Easter: the function of the Descent in the Collegiate Church of Santa María de la Redonda on Good Friday afternoon. It was instituted in 1694 thanks to the donation of everything necessary for its celebration by Captain Don Gabriel de Unsaín.

The function of the descent and the procession of the Santo Entierro On March 20, 1694, represented his brother D. Blas, Benefited from the Church of San Bartolomé, the captain of Logroño D. Gabriel de Unsaín (1644-1698), Perpetual Ruler of the City and family of the Holy Court of the Inquisition of Navarre, granted before the notary D. Matías de Legaria the deed of donation of the Holy Sepulcher, image of Our Lady of Solitude and other necessary effects for that function.

Santo Sepulcro

From the writing of donation we can know his motive, which is none other than: "the particular devotion he has had and has (D. Gabriel) in contemplating the painful mysteries of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ and, especially, the of his burial, and also the Soledad of the Most Serene Queen of Angels, her Most Holy Mother, with whose devotion and memory she has obtained repeated favors from her Divine Mercy, freeing him from manifest dangers, in these realms as well as in those of New Spain " .

Therefore, "wishing that the devotion as so profitable and spiritual be imprinted in the hearts of all Catholics, and that throughout the city was made the day of Good Friday of each year particular function of such pitiful steps, as executed in the principal cities of these kingdoms, and to celebrate with lively representation the Passage of the Descent of Our Redeemer and his burial, I request to do on your own the make of the Holy Body of Jesus crucified of the whole body, and another of the Blessed Mother of the Soledad with movements and torillos in the arms and an urn that would serve as Holy Sepulcher of the Sacred Body ".

Having taken all the resolutions, it was on March 20, 1694, when the images of La Soledad and a Christ articulated along with other objects were handed over to the Town Council of the then School Member, among which the urn previously mentioned in the writing of donation it was described as "an all-shelled box of fine ebony shell, garnished with hammer silver and twelve silver filigree bouquets with boxwood pots the eight large bouquets and the four small ones, surrounded by glass stained glass fine".

It was also delivered: "a work of the Holy Cross and screws needed to put in the form of crucifix the sovereign Body of Jesus, several pillows of black velvet, a blanket of añascote for Soledad and some pine trunks to carry them on shoulders with eight pads, and also two scales that serve for the descent and a platform for more comfortable to run. "

With regard to the specific location in the temple, it leaves it to the election of the Cabildo, with the proviso that: "no particular person or community can interfere in the said placement, then, for in this case of being able to use the said effigies as of the others that the said Cabildo has as its own ".

Notwithstanding the foregoing, he also undertook to establish that for "the guard and custody" of the said Sepulcher was placed on its altar a gate with two different keys, one of which would be in possession of the Cabildo and the other in power of D. Gabriel, his brother D. Blas, or, in his absence, the person designated by his family "that was more of his affection and does not have kinship with the gentlemen of the Cabildo".

However, the images had no chapel until the early s. XVIII, concretely in 1701, being until that moment the same in the chapel of the Angels that in the old sacristy. To guard the exquisite sepulchral urn, the Najerine carver D. Francisco de la Cueva had executed a kind of large showcase with its wooden enclosures, which were then gilded thanks to a testamentary command of Unsain himself. The donor, faithful to his purpose of establishing the function of descent in Logroño, as was done in the main cities, even left the ceremonial to be followed available in the deed of donation. Probably he was inspired by the function that took place in Seville, where he lived and that ran from the account of the Brotherhood of the Holy Burial, which had substantially renewed and enlarged thanks to the good efforts of the presbyter D. Manuel González de Contreras from 1691 It was not in vain that Abbot D. Sánchez Gordillo affirmed that this was the "most solemn function of all those celebrated in Holy Week and so it is expected and seen by all the people of the city and beyond."

In the Seville capital the function of the Descent took place on Holy Thursday at midnight. The brotherhood "put in the middle of the hill, where is the oratory of Columbus, the image of Christ Our Lord crucified, accompanied by the two robbers held high, and at the foot of the cross, the images of Mary Our Lady and St. John the Evangelist, the Magdalene and the two Marys with some lights, that with the silence and darkness of the night, when at a competent hour people came to see such a spectacle, they made a remarkable reverence and devotion the sight of that step that from afar and even close up he had living representation and gave a genre of dread and respect to all who saw him, because they returned devout and compunction; and it was like this until three o'clock in the afternoon, for which a distinguished preacher was preaching, who preached the mystery of the Cross and the descent from it of the body of Jesus Christ blessed by those holy men Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimatea; and at the time the preacher arrived, four priests who were ready and dressed in black ornaments and stoles and raised stairs and brought them to the cross and the two of them, one of them, stood up from the audience. part and another of another, climbed by them, to make the Descent of the Body of Christ Our Lord, who was in it and with the appropriate form, hitting the nails, girding the body with curious and appropriate towels, with much devotion and reverence lowered the blessed body and the other two who had remained below received it and carried the Holy Body, and placed it in the arms of the image of the Blessed Virgin, and her companion. "

Something similar, although simpler, wanted to institute D. Gabriel de Unsain in his native Logroño, for which he arranged that "on Good Friday in the afternoon and at the time it seemed to the Cabildo, there will be a function of the Descent of the Holy Cross from Jesus Christ Our Redeemer and his burial, for which purpose his Sovereign Crucified Body must be placed in the transept or presbytery and the Blessed Mother of Solitude at the foot of the Holy Cross, mourning the platform, transept and presbytery with fifty yards of cloth I leave for this effect. "

"And likewise, he has to make a sermon of the Descent, by which the speaker will be given a doubloon of two golden shields, worth seventy reales de vellón". "And buried the Sovereign Body of the Redeemer in said box is to be carried in a particular procession in the form of burial, along with the said image of Mary Most Holy of Solitude, through the streets that the Cabildo customary to make the other processions of particular his church. "

These streets were the old ones of Herventia, plazuela of San Isidro and Cavalry. This was done until, in the 19th century, this procession of Good Friday adopted a route very similar to the current one.

But such splendid ceremonies must necessarily entail a series of expenses. This was also taken into account in the writing, by means of which five hundred ducats were delivered; of them, three hundred were destined to the acquisition of farms, with whose rents or fruits the costs derived from the function as well as from the care and conservation of the donated patrimony would be defrayed; the remaining two hundred reales were destined for the construction of the altar where the images were to be placed.

Despite the above, and to ensure the donor of the perpetual celebration of the aforementioned function, included a clause in the deed by which "the Cabildo must be obliged to hold such a function perpetually and forever but in any case fortuitous and the change of the same times is lost in all or in part the capital of the three hundred ducats. " This arrangement did not serve him much, since it has not been carried out for more than 150 years.

Returning to Holy Week, it should be noted that the brotherhood was acquiring new images for the processions. The processional procession began with a large cross, called the towel. Then came the step of the Descent (which fortunately is still preserved), incorporated in the seventeenth century and that was a mystery: the Lord on the cross, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus up on some stairs to proceed to unlocking, and at the feet of the Virgin , San Juan and Magdalena.

Due to the rattle of the litter, the images were requiring frequent repairs, although the most notorious was the one made by the sculptor and painter D. Juan José de Arciniega in 1775. Behind, and among the brothers who lit with candles, the Saint was advancing Sepulcher and, finally, the Virgin of the Solitude in its litter. Closing the procession, the monks of the convent of la Merced singing songs and the members of the city regiment. This procession of Good Friday remained in Logroño until the middle of the 19th century.

Due to the disentailment, the Mercedarian convent was destined to civil uses although its church remained open like aid of parish of Santiago the Real one. Later, and before the imminent closing of the temple in order to convert the entire building into a cigar factory, the brotherhood emigrated with its belongings to the parish of Santa María de Palacio, where he installed his neoclassical altarpiece, in which to date the image of the recumbent Christ is seen and, in the main niche, that of the Virgen de la Soledad, owner of the old brotherhood, disappeared without a trace when the ill-fated nineteenth century was completed.

Since the disappearance of the old brotherhoods of Vera Cruz and Soledad in the mid-nineteenth century was only in Logroño the procession of Good Friday, which was organized spontaneously with a certain progressive coordinating role assumed by the Cabildo de la Colegiata de Santa María de la Redonda and, later, by the Apostleship of Prayer.

Within this panorama it is worth mentioning the birth of the brotherhood of the Huerto de los Olivos in 1882, with canonical headquarters in the church of Santiago el Real. It had a passage in which the Lord was seen in front of an olive tree in which a small angel stood with a chalice in his hand. The life of this pioneering brotherhood was, however, quite ephemeral.

For those same years, at least as early as 1889, another brotherhood was operating in the same temple, that of Jesus Nazareno, which has lasted to this day, as the dean of the penitentials of Logroño. The brotherhood of the Nazarene had three steps: Jesus tied to the column, Jesus crowned with thorns (also called the "half body") and the owner. From 1889 to 1905 this image was the one that is currently venerated in the hermitage of Cristo del Humilladero and since this last year the popular image of the "ancient" Nazarene, also of dressing.

At the end of the XIX century and beginning of the XX in the procession of Good Friday of Logroño eight steps could be seen: the Orchard's Prayer, the Column, Coronation of thorns (half body), Nazarene, Calvary, Descent, Grave and Virgin of the Solitude . The route of this procession started from the interior of La Redonda and continued through the streets Portales, Amos Salvador, Rodríguez Paterna, Mayor, Merced and Portales until entering the Collegiate Church again.

In 1908 the procession was enlarged with the incorporation of two new steps from the workshops of Christian Art of Olot. The Garden of Olives, donated by D. Francisco de Luis y Tomás, who came to replace the previous one, very deteriorated; and the new one of the Virgen de la Piedad, donated by a devoted lady. That year it rained and the procession had to be suspended.

From the end of 1915 until the beginning of 1922 the Redonda remained closed for works, reason why the cult was developed in the church of the old Seminary, with entrance by the Hermanos Moroy street, from which the procession of Good Friday also left. All the civil and military representations, an army squadron and two bands of music participated in it. As a curious fact, it should be noted that in 1927 they saw for the first time in Logroño "penitents with (the) tall and pointed hoods" that are so characteristic today. Barefoot women also participated with their faces covered after the passage of their devotion as well as children dressed as Nazarenes and girls dressed in the style of the painful ones.

With the arrival of the Second Republic in 1932, the celebrations of Holy Week were greatly altered as no processions were held except in 1935 and on Good Friday it ceased to be a holiday. During those years the cults were internal, highlighting a small procession that was made by the cloisters of the Palacio church.

Again in 1937 the procession of Good Friday returned to the streets of Logroño, although it is true that in an environment dominated by the ups and downs of the Civil War. Some voices already cried out asking for the organization of a brotherhood or brotherhood that was in charge of promoting the Holy Week of Loggia. D. Salvador Aragón proposed in the newspaper La Rioja give more prominence to the procession by incorporating new images and through the participation of brothers "with black satin hoods."

Viernes Santo de 1935.

A few years before, in 1929 and also in the pages of La Rioja, the editor who signed under the pseudonym of Calicata, showed the concern that reigned among some groups of devotees to improve and enrich the Holy Week noting that "the fraternities are missing", so he launched a challenge: "Why not form them? Brotherhoods that will take charge of one step or an image (...) that of Jesus Nazareno, that of La Dolorosa, that of the Sepulcher ... ".

After the civil war ended in 1939, a deep desire to come to possess a series of organizations that gave the rigor and the necessary seriousness to the processional processions of the city began to be felt in Logroño. It was decided that a brotherhood would be founded, that with its discreetly striking habits they would call to the piety and the devotion of the Holy Burial as it passed through the streets of Logan. In response to so many requests, in 1940 the Brotherhood of the Passion and the Holy Burial was constituted canonically.

Newly founded the Brotherhood, this one centered in revitalizing completely the great Procession of Santo Entierro, and as well organize a new procession, the one of the Meeting, that began to be realized in the day of Holy Thursday. The first place where El Encuentro took place was at the corner of Sagasta and Mayor streets.

In 1943 this procession of the Encuentro was carried out for the second time, and at approximately eleven o'clock at night, the 303 brothers with whom the young brotherhood counted went to the Calle Mayor from La Redonda. Before they had sung the Miserere, original composition of the teacher Valdés. These brothers carried the image of the Sorrowful Virgin. When the procession arrived at the indicated crossing, the Roman guard who opened the parade simulated the arrest of Jesus, who at that moment was taken from the Church of Santiago el Real. Formed Roman soldiers led the Nazarene from the Church to the confluence of the established streets, where the meeting between the two images took place.

As for the Magna Procesión del Santo Entierro, it took on more prominence over the years, and in 1943 members of the blue division, who had just arrived to fight in Russia, formed part of the picket line with a band of honor. cornets

In 1944 the Santo Cristo de las Animas, which was in the cloisters of the Palace Church, left for the first time. It was inside this church when in 1945 the young people of Catholic Action organized for the first time the Way of the Cross for men.

In 1946 the Brotherhood released a valuable cross and two guide lanterns, as well as new litters for the meeting, thus showing the dynamism of the brotherhood. Each year that passed, the Brotherhood tried to improve with respect to the previous year, praying that the men and young people of Logroño participated by being part of it. It was in 1947 when the Children's Brotherhood was founded, as a subsidiary of the Passion and the Holy Burial. It would be responsible for carrying the new step of the Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem and its members would be between 8 and 15 years, becoming full members of the Brotherhood after that age.

1949 was a great year for the Brotherhood. After a long time in which a popular subscription was opened, it was possible to open the new cloak for the Dolorosa, which looked majestic in the procession of the Encounter. It is also the same year in which the image of Mary Magdalene, escorted by a large number of penitents, comes out for the first time.

From 1950 the Brotherhood suffers moments of crisis, aggrieved by the economic expenses and the low number of brothers (less than 500). Multiple solutions were sought in order to continue with their purposes, until in 1956, the illusion of the brothers could make possible the realization of new litters for the passage of the Sepulcher.

Over the years the steps were being improved and expanded, until in 1966 the Brotherhood of the Seven Words and Silence went out, completely independent of the Brotherhood. Little by little new Brotherhoods were emerging as sections of the Brotherhood, which would take charge of the steps that would be given to them, others with steps that they commissioned and paid for themselves. But this is already the history of each brotherhood ...

In the year 2000 the Brotherhood of the Passion and the Holy Burial becomes the Brotherhood of Brotherhoods of the Passion of the City of Logroño. In 2002 the Brotherhood of the Seven Words enters, the only one that did not belong to this brotherhood.

Holy Week in Logroño is alive. It evolves and gets better year after year, recovering the illusion that the founders of that Brotherhood back in 1940 had in making our Week Greater a worthy and great show to represent the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Hermandad de Cofradías

de la Pasión de la Ciudad de Logroño