What is the jubilee year?
A year of faith, reconciliation and solidarity that shines with its own light in Caravaca de la Cruz, one of the five cities in the world that enjoys the so-called Jubilee Year in perpetuum.
There are years that shine with their own light and of which you have probably heard about it. They are called Jubilee Years, 365 days extremely special for Catholics. Caravaca de la Cruz has a lot to contribute about it. It is the fifth city in the world that enjoys the so-called Jubilee Year «in perpetuum», a mention that has led him to receive thousands of pilgrims from all parts of the world annually.
And the Jubilee Year is not a simple thing. It is a holy year in which faith, solidarity and, of course, reconciliation are promoted. It is the most direct way to reconcile with God.
More than a decade and two Popes have passed since Caravaca was granted a Perpetual Jubilee Year, celebrated every 7 years. He obtained it thanks to a curious fact that occurred in the sanctuary centuries ago. It is said that the Blessed Vera Cruz passed through this area and it is believed that there are deposited several splinters of the ‘Lignum Crucis’ in which Jesus Christ died.
The Caravaca Cross
According to legend, the Cross – originally belonging to the first patriarch of Jerusalem after the conquest of the city by Muslims – was miraculously taken to the castle-sanctuary of Caravaca by two angels, which are also part of the imagery that makes up the cross.
Emir Ibn Hud, who extended his power over much of Al-Andalus, dominated the Taifa of Murcia. As a party of Christian captives arrived in Caravaca, the city emir, Ceyt Abuceyt, asked the cleric Ginés Pérez Chirinos, who came among them, what was his trade. The cleric Ginés Pérez Chirinos responded that his thing was to celebrate Mass, the Emir ordered that the necessary things be matched to satisfy his curiosity about the Christian ritual. When the priest said that he needed a crucifix for such a need, two angels appeared who, carrying the locket with the Lignum crucis, placed it on the makeshift altar. The miraculous appearance caused the emir and his entire court to be baptized.
Eleven years after the appearance of the Cross, the Murcian kingdom passed to the vassalage of the Castilian King Ferdinand III the Holy (1243-1244). The Cross served as a flag and talisman against further Andalusian attacks, especially those carried out by Muhammad ibn Nasr, emir of Arjona and Granada. With this, Caravaca would consolidate itself as the bastion of the Hispanic-Islamic border.
In 1942, Pope Pius XII granted Caravaca a new Lignum crucis. The city celebrated with great parties the restoration of the relic.
The devotion to the Cross of Caravaca was extended throughout the Christian world – including Poland, France, Germany, England, America, etc. – thanks to the Society of Jesus.
The city of Caravaca de la Cruz celebrates the Patron Saint Festivities of the Holy and Vera Cruz from May 1 to 5, reproducing with acts, processions and parades of Moors and Christians, the medieval and religious past of the city.
On the morning of The Wine Horses, on May 2, the legend of the rupture of the Muslim site to the Christian fortress is remembered by some Knights Templar. Given the need for drinking beverages, because the wells are contaminated by the Saracens, the Christians brought some skin of wine tied to a horse to the fortress. In this way they broke the Andalusian fence and, already safe, that wine was blessed by the Cross and thrown into the wells, purifying the water and leaving it suitable for consumption. This tradition is remembered on the aforementioned day, when the caravaquen horsemen rock up a horse and elect four representatives to run a race on the slope of access to the Vera Cruz sanctuary.
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