Mazarron reenacts the Nine Declarations of the Miracle

The town of Mazarrón remembers the miracle of Bolnuevo

As part of the annual fiestas of the Miracle in Bolnuevo, which end this year on Sunday November 19, Mayor Ginés Campillo and students at the Domingo Valdivieso and Antonio Hellín secondary schools reenacted the traditional Nine Declarations of the Miracle at the church of on Wednesday evening.

Also taking part were the choir of Juan Toledo and María Cecilia Morales, who sang the welcoming song.

There are two ways of understanding the Miracle of Bolnuevo: the first is a historical one based on the 9 Declarations signed at the time of the events in 1585 and the legend which grew from the tales of Franciscan monk Ginés García Alcaraz in 1764.

The historical version recounts that on the morning of 17th November the guard on duty in the Torre de los Caballos in Bolnuevo spotted 7 galleons leaving from the beach of Piedra Mala, leaving behind weapons and a flag, known locally as the “Bandera de los Moros”. This flag was flown from the church of La Purísima until the 19^th century and it alerted the local population to the fact that the guard’s reports were true.

At this point the Mazarroneros hurried to the church of San Antón to thank the Virgen del Rosario for saving them from attack, and as they were leaving the priest of the church of La Purísima saw that the light which had been lit the night before to illuminate the statue of the Virgin was not only still alight but was actually dripping oil. He ran to warn his mother, who came to see the phenomenon immediately, and they decided to sound the bell to alert the populace.

They then heard a noise from the hospital next to the church and on opening the door the local priests found that the Virgin was blushing and sweating, and this was immediately interpreted as a miracle as it lasted a further 90 minutes.

The figure of the Virgin was then taken out onto the streets in procession as the local brotherhoods chanted the Te Deum, and from then on the 17^th November has always been a local holiday in Mazarrón. In addition, the Virgen de la Purísima was named patron of the town, facts which are also included in the Nine Declarations made by the Mayor at the time, Juan Zamora Vivancos, and his deputy, Captain Ginés Pérez de Burgos, before the scribe Jorge Escobar.

The original declarations are now lost but their contents have been preserved through parish records from between 1946 and 1950.

Image: Nacho Ruiz

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