A social and cultural phenomenon that surpassed the religious fact.

Some facts of religious subject with enormous cultural content became sociological. Among them, we can cite that of the Immaculate Conception. Its entrance in art, literature and popular piety in the Hispanic world during the 17th century was a phenomenon that involved the entire social fabric. Its images in different areas and with different techniques transcended the strictly religious to be framed in a broader dimension: the cultural. The topic gave rise to singular experiences on the part of the people, as well as to a veritable hotbed of ideas, images and writings by theologians, artists and members of other social elites.

Navarrese society also lived that mystery and pious belief with intensity, as it was not dogma until 1854. Some towns proclaimed her patron saint, others denounced the Dominicans who preached against popular sentiment and others took their own particular conceptionist vows. Countless vows, brotherhoods, congregations, greetings, festivals and tournaments bear witness to how the mere religious fact became sociological and cultural.

Vows of the institutions and large cities and co-patroness of the kingdom.

The immaculist movement was present, early on, in Navarre's institutions, both in those of the Kingdom and in the local and diocesan ones, as well as in those of the religious orders -especially Jesuits and Franciscans- and of multiple confraternities. The conceptionist oath of the Cortes of Navarre of 1621 and the votes of the main town councils (Pamplona in 1618, Tudela in 1619, Estella in 1622, Olite in 1624 and Sangüesa in 1625) constitute a good sample of it. To the same feeling was due the obligation to swear the oath of defense of the mystery for those who settled or became naturalized in these lands, or became part of a strictly civil or religious institution, either the Courts of Navarre or the cathedral chapter. To all this must be added the festive celebrations, the processions, the music, the tournaments and amusements with which the people celebrated, in an extroverted way, the festivity. The pleasure of feeling and the joy of celebrating were very present in harmony with the art and culture of the Baroque always tending to captivate people through the senses, more fragile than the intellect.

In 1760 the Pope, at the request of Charles III, declared the Immaculate Conception as patron saint of Spain. The Diputación de Navarra received the royal missive in 1761 and left the resolution on how to celebrate the feast to be determined by the Kingdom gathered in Cortes. In 1765, the latter institution decided to commemorate the feast as was done with the patron saints, with the Immaculate Conception appearing, in successive years, as co-patroness of the Kingdom in its official acts.

Some Navarrese towns such as Fitero, Cintruénigo, Corella, Olite and Arróniz proclaimed her patron saint or co-patron saint around 1643, with the corresponding vote if they had not done so previously, while others denounced the Dominican friars who preached against popular belief.

The party multiplied in Pamplona and a spectacular tournament in Tudela

The cathedral, the Franciscans, the Augustinian Recollects and the Capuchins of the capital of Navarre competed with cults and celebrations around the 8th of December, in some cases with a novena and, generally, with an octave. The kingdom and the Pamplona regiment did the same. issue The music chapel of the cathedral had to attend such a large number of functions that the schedules and services had to be rationalized. Even the Congregation of the Immaculate Conception of the Jesuits, established in 1613, would be forced to celebrate its main feast on December 21, because the 8th and its octave were full of functions in important temples of the city. Its congregants organized a ringing of bells on the eve, accompanied by shawms, a large bonfire in front of the prefect's house and the placement in the windows of the houses of all of them of an image of the Immaculate Conception between two luminaries.

In the capital of La Ribera and in honor of the Immaculate Conception, a tournament was organized in 1620, perhaps the most important of those held in the city in the centuries of the Modern Age. As it is known, a tournament recalled the medieval chivalric exercises with warlike combat simulations. It was considered the noblest exercise for knights, although it declined in Castile and remained with some strength in the territories of the Crown of Aragon. Its protagonists were the nobles, from whose ranks the actors and even the spectators were recruited, in many cases.

As in festivities of this genre, the announcing poster gave an account of the participating gentlemen, and their relationship explains everything related to the stage, the pomp, the luxury and the ostentation of the event, all elements with one purpose: to captivate the spectators through the force of the senses, by means of oral and plastic means. The spaces of the party, as expected, were transformed for the event with banners, pennants and rich taffeta hangings and pastries.

Music was also present in his development , both of purely civilian and military content. In this regard, it should be remembered that music was in this, as in other religious and recreational festivities, a real soundtrack, which emphasized moments full of symbols, ceremonies that spoke with their gestures, as well as the wordless actions of those who acted. Gunpowder, drums, fifes and boxes cooperated in that world of sounds to underline some times with sublime effectiveness, such as the arrival of the infernal monster, a kind of machine with fires and rockets of all kinds subject.

Brotherhoods and festivities throughout the region: bonfires, music, gunpowder and bells.

A total of seventeen parishes are or were under his patronage: Egulbati, Ezperun, Garrués, Naguiz, Ollacarizqueta, Anchóriz, Errea, Ilúrdoz, Arive, Ongoz, Arce, Artozqui, Gurpegui, Ayanz, Uli de Lónguida, Uroz and Tirapu. There were sixteen hermitages, the oldest being that of La Concepción del Monte de Torralba del Río, built by the hermit Juan de Codés in 1540, although the most famous was that of Cintruénigo, with the greatest social, devotional and artistic projection.

Among the confraternities we know of those of Ablitas (documented in 1562), Cintruénigo, Echarri-Aranaz, Lazagurría, Mendavia, Fitero, Corella, Artozqui, Lodosa, Legaria, Falces, Cárcar, Torralba del Río, Caparroso and Sangüesa. high school To these must be added some guilds such as the weavers' guild of Pamplona or the waxmakers' guild of Estella, the congregations of the Society of Jesus and the Lawyers' Guild of Pamplona, who venerated her as their patron saint.

In the different localities of Navarre where the day of the Conception was celebrated, with greater or lesser pomp, we find the typical elements of the traditional celebration: the sermon, the roar of the gunpowder, the heat of the fire of the bonfires, the sound of the bells ringing in a special way, the chords of the music and a rich ceremonial to accompany the authorities to the vespers, to the mass and to the procession of the day, where the sermon, entrusted ex profeso to a person with oratory qualities, stood out. In some confraternities, such as that of Echarri-Aranaz, there was no lack of warnings in pastoral visits, about the excess of food and drink under the pretext of the celebration. In Cintruénigo there are even documented representations of comedies on the occasion of some extraordinary celebration.

On the eve of the dogmatic declaration of 1854

Society lived that pious belief with intensity, since it was not a dogma until 1854. There were still localities, in the middle of the XIX century, in which the neighbors exchanged the angelic greeting, as a courtesy, when they passed each other in the street. The parish priest of Lacunza, in 1849, reported that the inhabitants of that town used the Ave Maria Purisima, to greet each other, since "still, thanks to God, modern greetings have not been put in internship, in these people". In some towns where there was neither a brotherhood nor a vote, some families defrayed the expenses of the feast, as was the case in Santacara, Aoiz and Aibar. In the same way, the custom was generalized on the same dates to begin the sermons with the following salutation: "Blessed and praised be the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar and the Immaculate Conception of Mary our Lady conceived without stain of original sin in the first instant of her natural being. Amen. In Ochagavía, at the end of praying the rosary, the families prayed as follows: "May the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar and the pure and immaculate Conception of Mary Most Holy at the first moment of her natural being be forever blessed and praised. Amen.

These testimonies and many others reached the bishopric of Pamplona from the towns within its jurisdiction, in response to an edict and questionnaire on the topic of the Immaculate Conception in 1849, when the dogmatic declaration of Pius IX was making its way.

Artistic expressions

Together with the feast, music and public entertainment, the images of the Immaculate Conception, in their pictorial, plastic and engraved versions, constitute the best testimony to contemplate the true dimension of that phenomenon. Prominent patrons, institutions, nobles, private individuals and confraternities commissioned sculptures, paintings, engravings, badges, medals and scapulars with the image of the Conception. Many of them have been preserved, constituting key pieces to analyze that reality from different points of view: historical, religious, customs and artistic.  

Among the sculptures there is a marked difference between those of the 17th century and those of the following century. The former will be of Castilian imprint, indebted to the models of the Valladolid sculptor Gregorio Fernández. Those of the main altarpieces of Arróniz and Arellano stand out, as well as that of Berriozar, paid for in 1632 by its abbot Don Nicolás Ezpeleta, from the house of the barons of his surname and viscounts of Val de Erro. From Valladolid came a singular carving, in 1681, destined for the high school of the Jesuits where there was an important brotherhood of the Immaculate Conception, which today is preserved in the seminar of the capital of Navarre. The contributions of important schools are present in other localities. That of Ablitas suggests Andalusian models by Pablo de Rojas, those of Neapolitan origin are not lacking in some religious enclosures, and it is not unusual to find some from workshops in La Rioja or Aragon in places that once belonged to the bishoprics of Calahorra or Tarazona.

Confraternities of the Immaculate Conception and of other advocations, made conceptionist vows and commissioned paintings and sculptures. The Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament of Tudela paid for a dress image, in 1682, which is the one that is carried in procession on Easter morning in the famous Descent of the Angel in the capital of the Ribera.

The delicacy and baroque Berninesque style will be imposed in the pieces imported in the 18th century from Aragon, Naples and the capital of Spain. Coinciding with the proclamation as patron saint of the Hispanic kingdoms in 1760, we find some unique pieces, some of which anticipate that fact. Among those arriving from the Madrid Court, the Lesaca, the work of Luis Salvador Carmona, those of Falces, Gaztelu of the same master's imprint and those of Arizcun and Bacaicoa stand out. From Naples came the one that is venerated in the altarpiece of the Virgen del Camino in Pamplona, paid for by Agustín de Leiza y Eraso, in 1772.

The chapter of the painting is especially rich, for having in Navarre with singular works. Among those of the XVI century we must mention the panels of the church of Cerco de Artajona and the Renaissance paintings of Tudela and Olite. Belonging to the centuries of the Baroque, we have works from the Madrid school, where the best art was consumed. Signatures of Marcos de Aguilera, González de la Vega, Castrejón, Ezquerra, Escalante, Miranda...etc., compose an outstanding list of canvases that were arriving to the places of reception of artistic vanguards that, in those moments, were the convents and monasteries. To all these canvases must be added those painted by Vicente Berdusán, the best painter established in Navarre in the 17th century.