“Without water there are no olives and without olives the province of Jaén suffers,” said the Bishop of Jaén, Sebastián Chico, while the image of Our Father Jesus Nazareno, popularly known as El Abuelo, was reunited with the thousands of people this Monday took part in a prayer procession for the drought situation, something not celebrated in Jaén for 74 years.
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Neighbors from all over the province have come for this Marian appointment, which has visited the old town of Jaén in the bright sun and more than 30 degrees temperature. “We must now raise our supplications to God to send us water to irrigate our thirsty land, recover our springs and tributaries, increase the flow of our rivers and increase the reserves of our marshes,” proclaimed the Bishop of Jaén , while exhorting citizens to join the prayer to ask for water.
There has been hardly any rain in the last two months in this country, which is heavily dependent on the primary sector. More than the meager water resources—swamps account for just over 25%—this province’s foundations are suffering from the drought’s impact on agriculture. The world’s most important olive-growing region, with 67 million olive trees, has seen its olive oil harvest fall by more than 60% this year, and forecasts for this year are even worse due to water stress tree. In this hydrological year, which began on October 1st, barely a third of the historical mean has been collected.
Although the bishop’s convocation took place on April 14th, last weekend the first rains began to appear in some parts of the Sierra de Jaén, which helped to further encourage attendance in the procession.
There were hardly any critical voices about this religious manifestation. Only the Jaén Laica association has shown its perplexity and, through a statement, has asked the Bishop of Jaén to ask his parishioners to accompany their prayers “with practical measures in the face of this unprecedented climate emergency”. Measures, they say, such as adhering to effective environmental measures that protect the proper use of water and help mitigate the degradation of the planet’s living conditions.
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Penitents in the “Grandfather” procession in Jaén JORGE GUERRERO (AFP)
The image of El Abuelo, undoubtedly the most venerated by the people of Jaen, has wandered the streets of the capital in a very different way than it does every Good Friday morning. He did it without the musical accompaniment, which many residents censored, and with the only sounds during the journey from the choir to Jaén Cathedral.
Before arriving at the Cathedral of Jaén, a Renaissance jewel that has been waiting for years to be declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco, the procession made several stops for the prayers of the faithful, starting at the Santa Teresa Monastery, where one it can see another unusual image: the singing nuns on the street.
Already in the cathedral, the Bishop celebrated a Mass in which he again asked to “experience the caress of God”, of which Pope Francis speaks. At the end he blessed the faithful and the olive groves of Jaén in the presence of the Holy Face, another symbol of Jaén Cathedral.
Other processions for the rain in Andalusia
Jaén’s legal aid education was historic, but not unprecedented. As early as 1949, the image of the man also known as the Lord of the Rain toured the streets in the face of a similar drought situation. Local researcher Francisco Jiménez recalls that these prayers were very common as early as the 17th century, “sometimes in the face of great droughts and on other occasions to ask for their intercession in the face of pandemics, plagues and even earthquakes”.
The Jaén procession will not be the only one of its kind in Andalusia. On May 7th, the Virgen de Linarejos, honorary mayor and patron saint of Linares (Jaén), will also take to the streets. In Granada, the Virgen de las Angustias, patron saint of the city, will be exhibited for the first time this Tuesday, May 2, in extraordinary devotional devotion, at eye level with the faithful, making it rain what The Brotherhood has called it a “historic appointment” referred to as thanking “for so many favors received” in the history of the archdiocese and “asking him for the drought in a very special way,” reports Europa Press.
In the municipality of Alozaina in Malaga, they marched ahead on Sunday to defeat the patron saint of farmers and the country, San Isidro Labrador, in a procession. This community of about 2,000 people, nestled between the Guadalhorce valley and the mountains of Ronda, took faith “in the face of the ongoing drought” and led the saint through the streets to beg him for rain. In Córdoba, the Confraternity of Archangel San Rafael will dedicate the procession with the Custos of Córdoba on May 6 “to Archangel San Rafael because of the lack of rain and through his intercession receive the gift so that the much-needed rain returns for everyone and especially for farmers and ranchers back.
Exit from “El Abuelo” by Camarín de Jesús, in front of the Bishop of Jaén, Sebastián Chico Martínez (in the middle). Jose Manuel Pedrosa (EFE)
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