Holy Week 2025: Brotherhood of Students Madrid, Synthesis of Sevillana and Castellana

The processions of the Holy Week of Spain have many accents and flavors. The Brotherhood of the Students of Madrid turns 35 and has re -processing the streets of the capital this Sunday of Ramos with a genuine flavor, synthesis of the Sevillian and the Castilian.

This is confirmed to ACI Press Juan Armada Espinosa, older brother of this brotherhood that is based in the Pontifical Basilica of San Miguel, headquarters of the Nunciature in Spain, in the historic center, near the Cathedral and the Plaza Mayor.

“We are a brotherhood of silence, synthesis of the Sevillian and the Castilian, with our own personality,” describes Armada, who congratulates himself for the good moment in the brotherhood, especially in recent years: “From the pandemic, it has been growing in a way, we could almost say that excessive, approximately 35 or 40 brothers per year.”

The days before Holy Week, nerves abound. Very special, on Friday of Passion, when the traditional is held cross Solemn, the swearing of rules of the new brotherhoods, the transfer of the Blessed Christ of Forgiveness in its processional pace and the withdrawal or general trial.

“It is a feeling of restlessness, nerves, of illusion and, in this case, with some fear, because time threatens us,” explained the older brother on Friday. So much so, I can’t do the cross On the street due to rain.

The new brotherhoods await the moment of their incorporation, while the bearers, help each other to adjust the sacks (the garment placed on the head on which the weight of the pass is supported) and the girdles.

Among the nearly 40 new brotherhoods that are committed to keeping the rules of the Brotherhood, is its new consiliary, Father Pío Santiago Abad.

The transfer of Christ is a solemn moment, in which silence is kept so that the indications of the foremen are clearly heard, who direct the performance of the 60 men who, in groups of 30 carry the nearly 1,000 kilos of each step.

Once the ritual is completed, it only remains to finish off the floral ornaments of the steps during Saturday and wait for time to accompany. “Whether we go out as if not, our work is to evangelize,” says the older brother to Aci Press.

Dawn rain on Ramos Sunday

Ramos Sunday dawns cloud and rainy in the morning in Madrid and weather forecasts are nothing flattering. However, the Pontifical Basilica of San Miguel is a hotbed of brotherhoods.

Everyone has an assigned function and, despite uncertainty, they prepare to process: Costaleros, penitent, ladies with mantilla, altar boys, water, paveras, lanterns … The activity is frantic.

The Brotherhood Governing Board meets every so often. They are the so -called waters and output councils, which evaluate the weather and the appropriate time to go outside, where appropriate. These meetings are held in a basilica stay that they call with sympathy “The Oval Office.”

In the absence of ten minutes for five in the afternoon, the older brother announces a first decision: to delay an hour the exit, waiting for the sky to clear.

“We will perform the penance station”

Mons. Bernardito Auza, who has been a nuncio in Spain and already with new destination assigned, in the European Union, arrives at the Just Temple to know the decision. In its presence, it is decided to pray the Holy Rosary until new order.

At 18:02, the older brother returns to the central nave of the temple to give the expected announcement: “Brothers, sisters, the Governing Board, gathered in Extraordinary Water Cabildo, has decided that we will carry out the penance station.”

After an excited applause, to which Mons. Auza joins, everything is arranged so that, missing 15 minutes for seven in the afternoon, finally, by the gate of the Basilica of San Miguel El Cristo carved by Luis Salvador Carmona in the seventeenth century.

Twenty minutes later, the image of the Mary Most Holy Immaculate Mother of the Church, the work of Juan Manuel Miñarro, who accompanies the streets of Madrid to the Christ of Faith and forgiveness since 2000.

The tour of the streets of the center of Madrid, accompanied by the faithful, faithfully portrays that Castilian and Andalusian synthesis of the brotherhood.

All those who accompany the steps keep a rigorous silence that infects the environment, especially next to the Christ, which is high and descended by its porters in each section with an extreme delicacy, as if levitating.

Only the rubbing of the coastal shoes and the sober indications of the foremen break the gathering atmosphere.

On the other hand, the “Levantás” of the passage of the Virgin Mary are carried out with the most festive, the processions of southern Spain. Also the orders of the foreman encourage it. “Come on, brave!”, Repeat on each occasion.

With the sunset, the lights of the candles that the Nazarenes carry and those that embellish the face of the Virgin Mary in her path, take prominence and transfer to the faithful who follow her with her eyes the deep feeling of being submerged in the essential time that changed the story.

After eleven o’clock at night, the procession comes again to the Basilica of San Miguel, where in the silence of the night, there is still an additional devotion sample: a deep and sense.