Spain: Jubilee for the Largest Andalusian Pilgrimage

It was Archbishop Javier Martinez, Archbishop of Granada, in the presence of the Archbishop of Seville and the other bishops of Andalusia, who proceeded to open the Holy Door during the vigil of Pentecost.

The feast of the descent of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles is traditionally the culmination of the pilgrimage of Our Lady of Rocio. In the 16th century, it was in the village of El Rocio, located in the district  of Almonte, in the diocese of Huelva, that a shepherd found a statuette of the Virgin.

While he was carrying it to Almonte, our man paused briefly on his way. While he was stopped, the statue miraculously disappeared and returned to the place where it had been found. The shepherd then ran to Almonte to report what had happened.

The clergy and the municipal council went to the place of the discovery of the effigy of Mary; after a thorough investigation, a hermitage was built to house the statue of the Virgin.

As the months and years passed, miracles multiplied. When the region of Seville was ravaged by the plague, the inhabitants of Almonte came in procession to look for the Virgin, and the spread of the plague stopped abruptly.

On June 8, 1919, Cardinal Archbishop of Seville, Enrique Almaraz y San, proceeded with a solemn coronation of the statue. It is in memory of this event that, a century later, a jubilee year has been decreed.

Tens of thousands of faithful assist at the various ceremonies that make the shrine of Our Lady of Rocio one of the most important places of pilgrimage in of all Spain.