The jubilee year of Caravaca de la Cruz closed with 800,000 pilgrims

This Sunday the holy year of Caravaca de la Cruz (Spain) closed, one of the five cities in the world that has been granted the perpetual jubilee, where some 800,000 pilgrims have come to earn the corresponding indulgences.

The solemn closing Mass was presided over by the Bishop of Cartagena (Spain), Mons. José Manuel Lorca Planes, and was attended by the Apostolic Nuncio, Mons. Bernardito Auza, the Bishop of Jaén, Mons. Sebastián Chico, and the Archbishop emeritus of Burgos, Mons. Francisco Gil.

Bishop Auza addressed a greeting on behalf of Pope Francis in which he recalled that “the Cross heals and heals, illuminates and always conquers,” while Bishop Lorca asserted that “the The wood of the cross “It is for all Caravaqueños and pilgrims the most excellent sign of the manifestation of God, because the radiance of the Cross has helped us discover and venerate the Crucified.”

The large influx of pilgrims has benefited from the opening of eight pilgrimage routes from different places, compared to the only one that existed in the last jubilee of 2017.

In 1998, Saint John Paul II approved the granting of perpetual jubilee to Caravaca de la Cruz, which entails the power to celebrate one holy year every seven, the first being in 2003. It was, therefore, the fourth jubilee year. The next one will take place in 2031.

Caravaca is one of the five holy cities declared by the Catholic Church along with Santiago de Compostela and Santo Toribio de Liébana, also in Spain, in addition to Rome and Jerusalem.

A cross with miracles in the middle of the Reconquista

The cross that is venerated in Caravaca has a double transept and its origin dates back to the year 1231, in the midst of the Reconquest, a Muslim hero became interested in the occupations of some of his prisoners.

Among them was the priest Ginés Pérez Chirinos, from Cuenca, who explained that his work was to win souls for heaven and celebrate the Eucharist, something that challenged the Muslim chief, who insisted on knowing such a rite.

Everything was prepared, but when the Mass was about to begin, the priest realized that he did not have an essential element: the cross. As explained by the Brotherhood of the Most Holy and True Cross of Caravacaat that moment two angels appeared on the altar “carrying a double-armed cross that they placed on the altar.”

Ceyt Abuceyt converted to Christianity and collaborated with the reconquest of Valencia under the orders of King James I.

Since then, devotion to the cross has spread, which is also granted the cult of latria “so it is given the same importance as other relics directly related to the passion and death of Jesus Christ.”

The presence of some Spanish missionaries from Caravaca de la Cruz in areas of present-day Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina brought this devotion to the American continent starting in the 16th century, where it is still present.