SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Aug. 1 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Vatican has granted the Canonical Patronage of the Villa de La Orotava to San Isidro Labrador, as announced by the Town Hall, which has indicated that the municipality has received this news with the issuance of a decree from the Dicastery for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments.
With this document, the Holy See has responded to the request that the Parish Community, together with the Brotherhood of San Isidro Labrador de La Orotava, raised to Rome to canonically confirm this title that by tradition and veneration has been maintained in the Villa for 400 years. back and that has always been felt in the roots of all Orotavanese.
From 1700 there are already references to the veneration of the farmers in this northern municipality celebrating mass and procession in their honor. Since that date, the festival has not been stopped. According to historical data, the cults were maintained in the Church of San Agustín until the end of the 19th century and then moved to Calvary.
The historian Manuel Hernández also affirms that the Church of La Concepción registered other important documents that made reference to the religious work of the farmers who participated in the acts of the patron saints of the town, but these, from the s. XVII and XVIII, have been lost over time.
And another reference from yesteryear, in which the issue of rods and clothing is mentioned for the first time, is that of Mariano Nouguell Secall, who narrates in 1868 that the festivities of the Patron Saint San Isidro Labrador of the Villa de La Orotava were preceded by of twelve poor farmers, with very long rods covered with flowers. “From each rod hung an infinite number of ribbons of different colors that represent the flowers and fruits of our fields. Also a cloth handkerchief in the shape of a bow and at the top of a bar, intertwined spikes.”
In addition, it stands out that among the peasants there was a custom of raffling off an ox team, honoring with this act the charity of the Saint, just as it is done today. Therefore, since that date the farmers have been in charge of the religious and popular acts of San Isidro; and in the last century it was continued by the group of sharecroppers of the Valley who worked the lands of lords and important families. Meeting, the vast majority, only for these dates. At present, the farmers continue each year taking down their rods, renovating them with love and care. And his greatest desire is to ensure the protection and conservation of this tradition, passing it from parents to children and grandchildren.
The main acts in his honor take place in the Villa between the months of May and June. Every May 15, specifically, the Day of San Isidro is celebrated with a Eucharistic celebration and a procession of the images that are in the Hermitage of Calvario. As of these dates, the farmers begin a careful and meticulous work with the preparations for the celebration of the acts in honor of San Isidro and Santa María de la Cabeza during the Major Festivals of the municipality: such as the transfer in procession to the Las Dehesas for the Livestock Fair-Exhibition and Holy Mass with blessing, and return to the Hermitage of Calvario; Ascent of the Saints and Pilgrimage of San Isidro Labrador and Santa María de la Cabeza that already celebrated its 86th edition last June organized by the Liceo de Taoro in collaboration with the town hall.
In all these celebrations it is the Brotherhood of Farmers that is exclusively in charge of carrying and guarding the saints, also wrapping them with their multicolored rods of characteristic ribbons and symbols of these acts.
The Brotherhood of Farmers, first prize of Villa de La Orotava Crafts and Heritage, celebrates its official constitution with statutes this year, and now receives this magnificent news of canonical recognition of the patronage that is received together. It is also noteworthy that last June, the Brotherhood of Farmers collected a relic of the Patron Saint in Madrid and delivered it to the church for safekeeping.
