Impressive procession in Aguilas as the Virgin is paraded around town
More than 600 people accompanied the Virgen de los Dolores on her name day
This Sunday just gone, September 15, there was a very special religious procession in the town of Águilas for the liturgical celebration of the day of the Virgen de los Dolores, or ‘the Virgin of Sorrows’, the town’s patron saint.
In this typically Spanish procession, the icon of the Virgin was carried around various different districts of Águilas, accompanied by hundreds of followers.
At 7pm, the icon – resplendent dressed in her finest brocade – left the parish church of San José carried on the shoulders of around thirty bearers who walked her to the Plaza Montcada i Reixac, where a solemn mass was officiated by the parish priest José Andrés Alcolea.
One day after the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the Catholic Church commemorates Our Lady of Sorrows, an invocation of the Virgin Mary also known as the Virgin of Sorrows.
Both events – the Exaltation of the Cross and Our Lady of Sorrows – are an invitation for Catholics to meditate on the mystery of the sorrow that united the lives of Mary and Jesus, who they believe redeemed humankind through his sacrifice on the Cross and subsequent resurrection.
Elaborate religious events featuring Catholic icons and time-worn rituals are a staple of many Spanish towns, and an important part of the country’s religious and cultural living history.
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Images: Ayuntamiento de Águilas
