With rain and wind and with a strict sense of duty, Queen Sofía attended this Thursday the disembarkation of the Legion in the port of Malaga and, later, the transfer of the carving of the Christ of the Good Death, into the arms of legionaries , from the church of Santo Domingo in the Andalusian city to the processional throne, located in the adjacent house of the Brotherhood, from where this Holy Thursday it will tour the streets of Malaga.
The King’s mother, 86, traveled this Wednesday from Palma, where she usually spends Holy Week, to Malaga, and after her arrival she went to pay her respects to two of the brotherhoods that were planning to procession. She did it in the company of her sister, Princess Irene of Greece, 82, to fulfill the royal family’s commitment to religious events. On this occasion, an emblematic manifestation of Holy Week in Malaga has been chosen, which is also deeply linked to the Legion, which every Holy Thursday transports some of its units by boat to Malaga to later pay honors to Christ. , carved by Pedro de Mena, known as Cristo de la Buena Muerte or Cristo de Mena. The carving, on its cross, which sleeps during the year in the church of Santo Domingo, is picked up by the legionaries who carry it on their shoulders, lift it with a single arm and wave it in the air to the sounds of the hymn “Novio de death”.
Queen Sofía, despite the unpleasant weather, attended the landing of the 8th flag of the Honor Squadron of the Tercio Juan de Austria of the Legion on the Levante dock of the port of Malaga, in the midst of the wind and rain that threatened the development of the military ceremony. Although Zarzuela considered the presence of the King’s mother in Malaga a private event, the development of the different ceremonies has included the mandatory military, civil and religious protocol.
Queen Sofía reviewed the troops accompanied by the head of the Military Quarter of the King’s House, Emilio García Cirujuela, and the chief of the General Staff of the Army, Amador Enseñat, and once in the Plaza de Santo Domingo, where The Christ was transferred on the shoulders of the Legion, alongside Queen Sofia was the mayor of Malaga, Francisco de la Torre, and the rest of the ecclesiastical, civil and military authorities. Both in the port and in the city, the King’s mother has been received with applause and cheers from the citizens present at the two ceremonies.
After the disembarkation and while the troops of the Legion trotted through the streets of Malaga, Queen Sofía went directly, by car, to the Plaza Fray Alonso de Santo Tomás, where the brotherhood house of the Brotherhood of Mena is located. , to carry out the transfer of Christ. The rain has given a respite and despite the cold, the devotion of those present has warmed the atmosphere, especially when the legionaries, after collecting the image of the Christ of Mena on the floor of the church, raised it with their hands and left. to the square to proceed to the transfer to the throne that will go out in procession.
Along the way, the porters, their fellow legionaries and the vast majority of the public present have sung “The Bridegroom of Death”, the piece that identifies the Legion although it is not its anthem.
Among the large audience that this Holy Thursday attended the transfer of Christ, there were also the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, accompanied by his fiancée Teresa Urquijo, whom he will marry on April 6, as well as the actor Antonio Banderas, who chatted briefly with Queen Sofia upon his arrival at the square.
The image of Christ of Mena is a neo-baroque crucified sculpture made of carved and polychrome wood that was made by the Malaga sculptor Francisco Palma Burgos in 1942 – it was restored in 2001 -, for which he was inspired by the original by Granada-born Pedro de Mena y Medrano, destroyed in May 1931 after the proclamation of the Second Republic
