Mother Brotherhood of the Virgen del Rocío pilgrimage to Rome for the anniversary of the visit of Saint John Paul II

The Matrix Brotherhood of Almonte in Huelva (Spain), administrator of the devotional history of Our Lady of Rocío, will make a pilgrimage to Rome from August 29 to September 1.

This trip to the Eternal City will be carried out to commemorate the 31st anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s visit to the emblematic Hermitage of El Rocío in 1993 and to celebrate the centenary of obtaining the title of “Pontificia”.

The president of the Brotherhood, Santiago Padilla, remarked in conversation with ACI Prensa that the pilgrimage will be carried out “with gratitude and filial affection, for two important events in the history of Rocío and our Brotherhood, which have to do with the chair of Saint “Peter.”

“This is an occasion to highlight this devotion to the Virgin, so important in Spain, and to refresh and strengthen ties with the hierarchy of the Church, on the threshold of the Jubilee of 2025,” he noted.

Likewise, he indicated that a total of 112 people from the Brotherhood will travel to Rome, also coinciding with a pilgrimage of the young group of the Brotherhood of Rocío from Seville, made up of another 70 people.

It should be noted that the brotherhoods are public associations of faithful established by their diocesan bishops to promote the cult of God through devotion to the Virgen del Rocío, one of the most deeply rooted in Spain.

The Pilgrimage of the Virgen del Rocío, popularly known as “El Rocío”, is one of the most important and popular pilgrimages in the country, especially in Andalusia. It is celebrated every year on Pentecost and attracts hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from Spain and abroad.

Pilgrimage to Rome

Padilla told ACI Prensa that “it is always important for any Catholic to make a pilgrimage to Rome, where the successor of Peter on earth is located, and the epicenter of Christianity.”

“Moreover, being responsible for a Brotherhood with the meaning of the Almonte Matrix,” he remarked.

The first activity that will take place after arriving in Rome will be the screening of the film “El Rocío. The love of Andalusia to the mother of God” at the San Luis Center.

In addition, they will celebrate the recitation of a public Rosary through the streets of Rome with the Almonte simpecado (banner or insignia), until they reach the image of the Immaculate Conception in the Plaza de España. Later, the members of this relevant Brotherhood will have a reception at the Spanish Embassy before the Holy See.

Two Eucharists are also included in the pilgrimage program. The first will be held in the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception of St. Peter’s Basilica and will be presided over by the parish priest of Almonte and Rector of the Santuario del Rocío, Fr. Francisco Miguel Valencia Bando. The youth choir of the Hermandad del Rocío of Seville will also participate in it.

The second Eucharist will be celebrated in the Papal Basilica of Santa María Maggiore and will be presided over by Mons. José Jaime Brosel, Rector of the Spanish National Church of Santiago and Montserrat in Rome.

The Virgin of Rocío and the Pope’s Rosary

The Andalusian Brotherhood also reported that since last August 16, the Virgin of Rocío has held in her hands a Rosary from Pope Francis, a gift delivered from the Vatican by Father Salvador Aguilera López, Vatican Official.

This is the second Rosary that a Pontiff gives to the Virgin, since Saint John Paul II also gave her one during his visit to the sanctuary on June 14, 1993.

Historic visit of Saint John Paul II to the Virgen del Rocío

Saint John Paul II arrived in the village of Almonte by helicopter on June 14, 31 years ago. Of that historic visit, what is especially remembered is the silence of the thousands of pilgrims while the then Pontiff prayed kneeling before the image of the Virgin so loved by the Andalusians.

“I am still overcome with emotion when I remember that torrid June 14, 1993. I was abroad as a collaborator of the Brotherhood, with an immense crowd of more than three hundred thousand people,” Santiago Padilla expressed to ACI Prensa.

“Everything that happened outside the Sanctuary was very emotional,” Padilla continued. “From the approach of the helicopters that brought him from Huelva, the prior arrival of the bishops, archbishops and cardinals who accompanied him by bus, as an announcement of his arrival.”

“The arrival on foot of the Pope himself, in the few meters he walked to the Sanctuary. And, above all, the moment in which he went out to the balcony, which today we call ‘the Pope’s balcony’, after blessing the 89 simpecados of the brotherhoods that existed then.

He also recalled the moment inside the Sanctuary, when the Pope prostrated himself before the Blessed Virgin to pray, “at a moment when the silence was cut off.”

“And when he went outside, through the aforementioned balcony, it was delirium,” highlighted the president of the Brotherhood.

From that day we will always remember the words that the Holy Pope pronounced from the balcony of the Sanctuary: “Let everyone be a Rocero!”