Just one day after the Vilaflor City Council proposed in plenary the appointment of Brother Pedro As co-patron of the Canary Islands, he returned to the route that bears the name of the holy chasnero who distinguished himself for the evangelization of Guatemala in the 17th century.
Since 2019 the Route of the Brother Pedro Way due to the pandemic, and not even the rain that fell on some section of the route, could prevent more than a thousand people from retracing a path that is a symbol of the collective memory of the people of the south shire and that unites history, spirituality, landscape and culture.
At 1,500 meters above sea level, it began, just as dawn was breaking, for the XV edition of the Route of the Brother Pedro Way. At 6:30 a.m. a liturgy was celebrated prior to the walk with the people gathered there, with the presence of the mayors of Granadilla de Abona, José Domingo Regalado, and the mayor of Vilaflor de Chasna, Agustina Beltrán, among other members of both municipal corporations.
Route of the Brother Pedro Way
After 7:20 a.m., the route started from Vilaflor de Chasna with more than half a thousand participants, to which more hikers and pilgrims from Granadilla, Charco del Pino, San Isidro, El Médano, and San Miguel de Abona joined. The route, organized by the municipalities of Granadilla de Abona and Vilaflor de Chasna, also had the collaboration of groups and organizations such as AENAMontaña Para Todos (MPT), the Nivariense Diocese, the volunteers of the religious space and mountaineers, among others.
The activity began from the Plaza de Vilaflor. From 6:30 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. there was a mass for the walkers who wanted it in the church of Vilaflor, and then the route began, leaving the town center in the direction of the cave, arriving at approximately 1:00 p.m. Other possibilities were the realization of the route from the Convent of Granadilla Casco (9.30); Charco del Pino, in the area of El Chorro (9.30); Plaza de la Cultura de San Isidro (10.30) and Plaza de El Médano (11.30).
The route contemplated a security device to ensure safety, counting, for this, with Civil Protection personnel from Granadilla de Abona and San Miguel de Abona; Local Police of Granadilla and Vilaflor; Red Cross and a security plan in the cave. The balance was very positive since there was no serious incident between the participants but the usual mishaps of a walk.
Since 2005, the date on which the study of the recovery and revaluation of the Camino del Hermano Pedro and its adjacent paths began, a challenge began for the Chasna region, which has been to recover a symbol of collective memory and which has been maintained to this day thanks to the residents of Granadilla de Abona and Vilaflor de Chasna, to unite the different municipalities of the region (Fasnia, Arico, Granadilla de Abona, San Miguel de Abona and Vilaflor de Chasna) and their population through the revaluation of a route that unites history, spirituality, landscape and culture.
The cultural route begins at about 1,500 meters above sea level and is 19 kilometers long. The Camino del Hermano Pedro is not only a transhumance route that extends between the municipalities of Vilaflor and Granadilla, but is part of a set of traditional paths, some of which appear on historical maps from the 18th and 19th centuries, this being the route that Brother Pedro traveled to move with his flock.
This afternoon the traditional mass will be held in the cave on the occasion of the saint’s day of San Pedro de SanJosé Betancur.
