CORPUS CHRISTI IN VALENCIA

FROMITS VERY BEGINNINGS, THIS RELIGIOUS . MANIFESTATION WAS ORGANISED IN THE FORM OF A CIVIC EVENT. THE DIFFERENT SOCIAL GROUPS THAT WENT TO MAKE UP PUBLIC LIFE ALL TOOK PART, FROM THE HIGHEST LEVELS OF CITY SOCIETY DOWN TO THE LOWEST.

JOAN E. PELLlCER LECTURER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF VALENCIA

he city of Valencia, like so many decorated to commemorate one of the Juliana of Likge, thanks to whom the others in the Christian world, three Thursdays -now a Sunday, as laid bishop of her diocese, Robert de Torete, has been celebrating Corpus down by recent Church directives- instituted it in 1246 within his eccle- Christi for more than six hundred years. which according to a traditional Casti- siastical demarcation. When the then This festivity, one of the deepest mani- lian song shine more brightly than the archdeacon of Likge, James Jacob Pan- festations of our spint of joy, undoubt- sun. taleon of Troies, ascended the papa1 edly adds to the Valencians' reputation And although the celebration is exclu- throne with the name of Urban IV, in as carousers. Year after year, the first sively religious in character, in Valen- 1264, he introduced the celebration for Sunday after Whitsuntide week, the fa- cia, and since its very beginnings, it has the whole of the Christian world and it cades and balconies of the main streets had a large following in the civil society was ratified half a century later, in of the old town -carrer dels Cavallers, and, in particular, the City Council. 1316, by Pope John XXII. carrer del Tossal, carrer de la Bosseria, This celebration seems originaily to The Valencian interpretation has al- placa del Mercat, Sant Vicent ...- are have been fostered by the future Saint ways indicated that the main reasons IVES. DWARTMENT OF CULTURE OF THE GWATVALENCIANA

why the papacy decreed this celebration beach he saw two fish, with their heads ber of reasons and resumed, this time were, apart from the miracle of Viterbo, out of the water, holding out the sacred uninterruptedly, from the year 1373. also known as the miracle of the "Bleed- wafers to him in their mouths. Yet From that moment on, the celebration ing Host of Bolsena", the extraordi- another episode helped to popularize gained steadily in popularity to the ex- nary events which occurred in Llutxent the worship of the Body of Christ tent that for many years it was consid- (a town in the Valencian region of Valí amongst the Valencians of the time. In ered the city's main festival and is often &Albaida) in the year 1248. According this case the events feature, amongst referred to by some authors of the time to this story, some corporals, or altar others, the guild of bankers of the city, as the "Festa Grossa". cloths, were hastily hidden under a rose who played an important part in the From its very beginnings, this religious bush to save them from the Moors who expedition to Alger organised by the manifestation was organised in the had invaded the area, and later, when Kingdom of Valencia -with a bu11 of form of a civic event, since it consti- they were retrieved, they were found to crusade granted by Benedict XIII- to tuted a hierarchical reflection of the dif- have bloodstains on them. As welí as rescue a monstrance stolen by the Sara- ferent social groups that went to make up this miracle there is also the popular cens in 1397 in the sack of Torreblanca, public life. Everyone took part, in rig- "Miracle of the Little Fish", which took a town in the region of la Plana. orous order, from the highest levels of place in the year 1348: a few kilometres Nevertheless, we do not know for sure city society -nobility and clergy- down from the Valencian capital, a priest in what year the General Procession to the lowest, according to their rank: from Alboraida who was returning from was first held. The oldest account we guilds, commoners, peasants, etc. administering Communion to an inva- have goes back to 1355, under the reign Furthermore, from early on, the flexible lid was caught up in a flood in the Ca- of Peter the Ceremonious, when a proc- structure of the procession meant that rraixet ravine and the casket containing lamation was made by the city magis- other elements were gradually intro- the holy wafers was washed away. trates in agreement with the Cathedral duced -some of them with clearly pagan When the danger was over and the authorities. Although the original idea associations- which added to the colour priest looked around for the casket, he was that the celebration should be held and the diversity of the event. There found it empty, but not far from the each year, it was suspended for a num- were Biblical figures from the old and PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVES, DEPARTMENT OF CULTURE OF THE GENERALITAT VALENCIANA

new testaments, representations of importance in the history of the theatre floats that now open the procession. saints, dances, mythological animals, in the País Valencia. The Roques were, When they are brought out from the floats carrying dramatic representa- and still are today, floats (which also storehouse where they spend the rest of tions, etc., all straight from the common existed in England and Italy at that the year, the "Priest of the Floats", at people's unsullied imagination. time) which were used as a mobile stage the "Invitation Cavalcade", invites While al1 these elements were, and still set for certain set theatrical pieces, or everyone to take part in the celebration. are, to be found in many of the Corpus mystery plays, a general term applied to Before the Procession itself, there is a Christi processions held in different the various scenes performed during the great parade: the city's mounted police, places, in Valencia they are of particu- procession. Of the countless mystery giants and "big-heads", the various lar significance, especially for the his- plays recorded as having been perfor- dance groups -la Moma, els Cavallets, tory of the theatre. Just to give an idea med during the history of Corpus Chris- la Magrana-, the characters from the of the scale and magnificence the Gen- ti in Valencia, only three texts have sur- Mystery plays -Saint Christopher, eral Procession acquired, in the year vived: "The Mystery of King Herod", the Pilgrims, the Magi, the Virgin of the 1400, only twenty-seven years after the commonly known as "The Slaughter", little donkey-, and a host of others celebration was resumed, the entourage "The Mystery of Saint Christopher" impossible to include in such a short already had a considerable symbolic and "The Mystery of Adam and Eve". account prepare the great event. complexity: thirty figures representing Today, though, the Roques are beauti- Finally the procession starts: more than angels, devils, prophets, patriarchs, fully crafted wheeled platforms on two hundred allegorical characters, as apostles, saints, innocents, kings, etc., which nothing is actually performed but well as the guilds, the churchgoers, the mythological animals such as dragons, which are like tableaux of important children celebrating their first commu- snakes, the Cuca fera, or monstrous characters or events. They have names nion, etc., followed by the monstrance, worm, of Santa Margalida, eagles, lions, such as the Immaculate Conception, the behind which come the religious, civil etc., paraded alongside the Entremesos Holy Trinity, Faith, Saint Vincent, Plu- and military authorities, and bringing (Interludes) or Roques (Rocks), as they to (commonly known as the Devil's up the rear, a military picket closes the were also called, elements of enormous float), Valencia and Fame. It is these grand parade. M