Only a few minutes had passed after nine o’clock at night when the exciting meeting took place, that of the Virgen de la Amargura and Jesús Nazareno in the Plaza del Príncipe de Santa Cruz. The procession of the Encuentro once again aroused all the emotion and devotion that these two steps have in a Santa Cruz that resumes its Holy Week, with the aim of restoring it to its pre-pandemic shine.
Yesterday, hundreds of people, much less than those who usually support these two steps, enjoyed the tour through the streets of the center of the capital with faith and devotion, to contain the emotion at the moment in which both images crossed paths in the square del Príncipe, where a choir gave a unique setting to the meeting. The Virgin of Bitterness left her temple, the church of San Francisco de Asís, at 8:00 p.m., and the Nazarene did the same at the same time from the church of La Concepción.
Unlike other parts of Spain, in Santa Cruz the procession of the Encuentro is not a scene of the Resurrection, but one of those of the Via Crucis, in which there is an encounter between the Holy Woman Veronica and Jesus Nazareno. In these cases, the representation is not joyful, but painful.
promenade
Last night, in Santa Cruz, another procession took place that also offered a unique moment, and that, for 49 years, had not taken place: the image of the Christ of Medinaceli procession down the Rambla de Santa Cruz. And it is that the parish of San José recovered in this Holy Week a procession whose last record dates back to 1973. The tour began at ten at night from the church located in Méndez Núñez to go along the central promenade of the Rambla, continue along San Martin and return to the temple.
Today, in Santa Cruz there will be no processions. And it is that the restrictions due to the pandemic, although they have already been lifted, have not allowed the brothers of the Virgin Macarena and Jesús Cautivo, who process through the capital every Holy Thursday, to rehearse to go out with both steps. Even so, you can visit them in the church of La Concepción.
