May 10, 2005

LECTURE AT PARTNERSHIP WITH THE CASA NAVARRA IN ZARAGOZA

Saint Francis Xavier in the historical identity of Navarre

D. Ricardo Fernández Gracia

The goal of the talk was to show how the figure of St. Francis Xavier was built in the historical report of Navarre, as one of its elements of identity, throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. His own peculiarities, in accordance with the culture of the Baroque, will turn the illustrious son of Navarre into a symbol of pride and glory for the land where he was born, with his own connotations, alien to some facts that will converge in his figure in contemporary times, of which some interpretation has already been made.

The elevation to the altars of a son of a noble family of the Kingdom, in 1622, led the Cortes and the Diputación, influenced by the Jesuits, to declare him patron saint, in harmony with the new times of the Counter-Reformation and with renewed ideals and models of sanctity. In spite of the civil service examination, throughout some years, of the city of Pamplona and its cathedral chapter, and the confrontation of supporters of Javier and San Fermín, in the end a agreement and a papal decision were reached, in 1657, indicating both as the main patron saints of Navarre. That confrontation between towns, town councils and institutions was not limited to that time, since in its interpretation different judgments have been made until very recent times, depending on whether a Jesuit or a canon of Pamplona subscribed to the account of the events.

The festivities that the institutions of the Kingdom, the city council of Pamplona and the Jesuits dedicated to Javier during the centuries of the Baroque in the capital of Navarre, together with the celebrations of his feast day and the novena of Grace in numerous towns, sponsored by devout people, their confraternities and parishes, made the knowledge of his figure grow in different areas and levels. 

The staged representations of his life that were prepared in the schools of Pamplona and Tudela also contributed to the diffusion of his transfigured image.

Of its rich iconography, the one referring to the co-patronage with San Fermín stands out for its significance and reading in Navarre, since the two saints appear making pendant in numerous areas, both in the old territory of the Pamplona bishopric, as well as in the rest of the areas under the jurisdiction of the prelates of Tarazona or Calahorra. A unique set with a cycle of six large Flemish canvases decorated the holy chapel in the castle of Javier, converted into a place of pilgrimage, as happened with St. Ignatius in Loyola or St. Teresa in Avila, although without reaching such a dimension.


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