The protector of the chicharreros toured the streets of El Toscal again. Flower petals flew from the windows as he passed and hundreds of faithful accompanied him on his pilgrimage from the parish of San Francisco through the streets of the neighborhood that in 1893 was freed from the cholera-morbid epidemic that was plaguing the city. .
The chicharreros begged the Lord of Tribulations to free them from the disease, which happened, beginning to control themselves and disappear after the procession of the image in rogations through the streets of the city. The town, grateful, promised that every Holy Tuesday they would recognize the miraculous image for its intercession for the chicharreros, and since then, the Lord of Tribulations has been in procession through the streets of El Toscal.
After two years of pandemic in which Santa Cruz was unable to fulfill his promise to take the image in procession on Holy Tuesday, and a 2022 in which even the masks reminded that the pandemic had not gone away, this 2023 has been the year of reunion of the faithful with their protector, now without restrictions, or distances, or masks that hide the faith and devotion that the faces of those present drew when the image passed by. The light rain that was incorporated into the procession did not detract one iota of emotion from the passage of the Lord of Santa Cruz through the streets of the center of the capital.
This year, in which the Palacio de Carta has also been reopened, many faithful have recalled how, before that miracle that is attributed to rid Santa Cruz of the epidemic, the Lord of Tribulations had already worked another miracle, the of sweat. And it is that the image of the protector of Santa Cruz was donated in 1802 by José Carta (General Treasurer of the Royal Revenues) to the Franciscan Convent of San Pedro de Alcántara (current parish of San Francisco de Asís). The miracle attributed to the Lord of Tribulations takes place in the house of the Carta family in the spring of 1795, considered the beginning of popular devotion to the sacred image.
The miracle
According to what they say, the Lord of Tribulations cured the wife of Don José de Carta, named María Nicolasa Eduardo, from a serious illness. There, according to the text sent to the vicar of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, “an eruption of various parts of the face of said sculpture was observed, apparently like water, depending on how liquid and crystalline the drops it formed. They picked her up in some cotton, leaving a dry trail. Shortly after, this event was repeated again, for which the aforementioned José Carta called Lieutenant Pedro Ortiz, who wiped it again, believing that the origin of this phenomenon was due to the proximity of the lamp that was next to the carving. . Thus, the lamp was removed and, however, the same thing happened for the third time, already in the presence of more witnesses.
It is from that moment when the Lord of Tribulations began to acquire great popularity and devotion on the part of the inhabitants of the city of Santa Cruz, in such a way that its owner at that time, the priest Fernando de Fuentes, who kept it Jealously in his home, he undertook to create an altarpiece in the now-defunct Convent of San Pedro de Alcántara to place the sacred image in perpetuity, as was the case in 1802.
