10 May 2012

Conferences

History, art and devotion around the Virgin of the Way

D. Ricardo Fernández Gracia.
Chair of Navarrese Heritage and Art

At the dawn of the 17th century, in the midst of the Counter-Reformation and in a climate of religious exaltation, the documentation of the parish of San Saturnino generalises the degree scrolldel "Camino" for one of its Marian images, taking up a pious legend that placed the arrival of the sculpture from the town of Alfaro in 1487, as the registrationof the beam of the presbytery of the church recalls and disseminated in different Baroque versions by J. J. Berdún in 1693 in Navarre and the famous Jesuit P. Juan Villafañe in 1726 in his work on the Hispanic sphere. J. Berdún in 1693 in Navarre and the famous Jesuit P. Juan de Villafañe in 1726 in his work on the Hispanic area.

The sculpture was in a kind of niche, known as a "cage"The Virgin of the Way was placed in the aforementioned beam until she was placed in a chapel at the foot of the church and a chapel was built so that she could be suitably veiled, following a custom with medieval roots that was perpetuated in Navarre until just over a century ago, in such outstanding cases as the Virgin of the Cathedral, Ujué or Roncesvalles. Devotion to the Virgen del Camino grew steadily until about four decades ago. This can be seen in her rogations (1719, 1724, 1728, 1738 and 1770), the ordinary and extraordinary festivals, the construction of her eighteenth-century chapel (1757-1776), the great celebrations of the 4th Centenary (1887), the name given in 1964 to the residency programof the Social Security, now part of the Navarra hospital complex, and the degree scrollde Queen and Lady of Pamplona conferred by decree of Archbishop Cirarda in 1987, at a time when its popularity and devotion were no longer what they had been in former times. In this respect, it is worth remembering that the centuries-old procession of the Octave, documented since 1655, ceased to be held on an annual basis in 1976.

Procession of 1887

1950 Procession

1965 Procession

A sign of identity of the burgh of San Cernin and the city of Pamplona

In the period from the 17th century until a few decades ago, the most popular Marian devotion of the people of Pamplona was the Virgen del Camino, without skillof other devotions, including the Virgen del Sagrario, the patron saint of the cathedral, with great official worship by the Kingdom, the Pamplona Regiment and the cathedral chapter. The donations to the Virgen del Camino in the form of jewels, cloaks, money and other prizes leave no room for doubt class, both among the residents of the city, in its different social strata, and among those who had emigrated to other parts of the peninsula and particularly to the Indies. The artistic legacies surpassed those received by the city for the adornment of patron saintSan Fermín.

Among the manifestations of the growing devotion, mention should be made of the new appearance of the silver-covered image (1721 and 1848), with its averagemoon alluding to the emblem of the Burgo and the Conceptionist mystery of 1675, its rich pedestal (1702) and, above all, the construction of the chapel, emulating the Obrería de San Cernin in the same city of Pamplona, which had done the same by promoting that of San Fermín in the parish of San Lorenzo between 1696 and 1717.
The chapel as a whole was made possible thanks to the means provided by the parish Obrería, private donations in kind, jewellery, money, workstaff or testamentary mandates and the proceeds from different bullfights organised by the Obrería and permission from the Royal committee. It is also worth mentioning various taxes, parish censuses, a general demand by the towns of Navarre authorised by the Bishop and the Royal committee, the quarters that corresponded to the cathedral chapter, as well as the succulent donations of Navarrese in the Indies and the contributions of the guilds and brotherhoods of Pamplona.

Coinciding with that fervour, some married couples decided to impose the name of Camino on their children. The first child documented is the baptism of Mª Camino Sierra y Ayerra (22-IV-1769), sponsored by Miguel Jerónimo Elizalde, secretary of the War Office ( committee). The second baptised was Mª Camino Zamarquilla in May 1773 and in the days following the placing of the Virgen del Camino (25-VIII-1776) we find four girls, one daughter of the Marquises of Vesolla. Since then, every year since then, several girls and some boys have been registered with the name, especially around the Octave.

Of the great memories, mainly from the 19th century, we should mention his board of trusteessobre los procuradores (1876) and the musical compositions for his Gozos, published in Pamplona in the previous century. Among the maestros who set them to music were Damián Sanz (1844 and 1854), Mariano García (1854), Mauricio García (1856, 1863, 1864 and 1868), Lázaro Gainza, Goya, Juan Desplán, Antonio Vidaurreta, Martín Dendariarena and Estanislao Luna. However, the most outstanding in this respect were the famous Sevillanas by Hilarión Eslava (1834), which delighted the people of Pamplona in past generations due to the great expectation they generated.

Coinciding with the Octave of Easter and the Novena in August, cages with canaries were hung on the railing of the dome of the chapel. Don Jesús Arraiza recorded the testimony of how their song perfectly matched the trill of a treble verse from the Gozos set to music by Mariano García. The custom was recorded in this copla of the time: "If I were a goldfinch, / I would spend my days, my nights, / singing in your asylum, / Virgencita del Camino". It should also be remembered that the presence of fountains with water, fruit trees and birds were very common in our churches, especially in the centuries of the Baroque, when art captured the individual through the senses, which were much more vulnerable than the intellect.


The feast of the Octave: oxen in harness, great procession and demand

The parish celebrated some very important festivals with its own financial means, especially those of San Saturnino, patron saint of the city, Santa Catalina and the Octaves of Corpus Christi and the Virgen del Camino. Some of them - San Cernin and the Virgen del Camino - were not only commemorated liturgically, but with funds from the Obrería - a kind of administration and factory board- large bonfires and oxen were paid for, which were run through the old medieval borough and up from the Rochapea the tirabueyes, while the clarinets and shawms played popular music. The use of bulls for festive and recreational purposes has mediaeval roots, and the celebration with the oxen was internshipcommon among towns and even brotherhoods to celebrate their patron saints.

The liturgical feast of the Octave, the fourth Sunday of Easter, which later became the fifth, was celebrated with the participation of the Cathedral Music Chapel at Vespers, at the service and at the famous "siesta".siesta"at the hour of Sexta and in the form of a musical evening that lasted until the evening function. However, the great visibility of the day had its climax in the procession with all the parish clergy and the accompaniment of the Town Hall buglers and, in more recent times, the Band of Music. The rich canopy of honour, the extraordinary ornaments, the spectacular parish cross, the sceptres and the richly decorated procession were, in former times, an event for the citizens.
A custom that disappeared a little more than a century ago was that of the "demanda" or "gran cuestación", which went through the streets of the village and the town.

presentationThe event was presented at positionby Ms. Arantxa Zozaya, from areaof Educationand Culture of Pamplona City Council.

The lecturetook place in the Chapel of the Virgen del Camino in the parish church of San Saturnino in Pamplona.

Images and devotion

The popularity of the Virgin of the Way owed much to her depictions in engraved and painted images. Engravings were reproduced by the thousands in various sizes and media, with plates opened at different times. The most widespread models were the work of the silversmith Juan de la Cruz in 1721, the Aragonese painter José Dordal in 1796 and the Catalan Tomás Padró in 1868.

The prints travelled to the Indies on many occasions and were used as a lure for the shipment of works of art or important donations. They were also present in most of the houses in Pamplona and served as modelfor paintings, especially the engraving of 1721, the most widespread of them all, as it combines the devotion to the Virgin Mary with that of San Fermín and San Saturnino, who appear in the lower part of the composition. 

At the end of the 18th century, scapulars of the Virgin became popular and later, in the 19th and 20th centuries, medals were minted in different materials, some as emblems of the Court of the Virgin of the Way. 

Canvas of the Virgin of the Way. Pamplona Cathedral