Devotees can visit the image of Our Lady of Solitude as Holy Week approaches

Semana Santa is approaching. The town’s treasured image of the Nazarene has been carried down from its home inside the iconic blue-domed chapel of Calvario and all preparations are being made for the most important date in the Christian calendar.

As part of those preparations, on Sunday 30th March, a programme of events dedicated to honouring the image of Mare de Déu de la Soletat, considered to be one of Xàbia’s most beautiful Marian icons, began with the display of the image in the window of a private house in Carrer Nou where it will remain for five days, allowing the faithful and devoted to pay homage between the hours of 12 noon and 8pm.

Organised by the Agrupación de la Soletat, the programme also includes a Holy Mass on Friday 4th April at 8.00pm in the Convent de les Agustines and then, on Saturday 12th April – Sábado de Passión – at 7.30am, the image will be carried on shoulders along the Via Matris, a pious exercise performed during Lent in which the faithful meditate on the seven sorrows of the Virgin Mary.

The image will be carried along the following route: Carrer Dr. Borrull, Carrer Mare de Déu de la Soletat (Niche · La Mare de Dé de la Soletat), Carrer Jesús Nazareno, Ronda Colón, Ronda Sud (Niche · Sagrat Cor de Jesús), Carrer Pastores, Carrer Verge del Pilar (Niche · La Verge del Pilar), Carrer dels Cups (Niche · Sant Joan), Carrer Santa Teresa, Carrer Sant Pere Màrtir (Niche · Sant Pere Martir), Carrere Santa Llúcia (Niche · Santa Llúcia), Carrer Sor Catalina Bas, Carrer Sant Isidre, Carrer Santa Marta (Niche · Santa Marta), finishing at the church of San Bartolomé in the heart of the historic centre.

La Mare de Déu de la Soletat · Our Lady of Solitude

Our Lady of Solitude represents the Virgin Mary’s state of mourning and contemplation after Jesus’s death and she is considered the patroness of the bereaved, those seeking consolation, a happy death, and those facing loneliness. She is one of the most venerated virgins in Spain and its former territories beyond the seas.

The current image of La Mare de Déu de Soletat dates from the 1950s and was created by Juan Bautista Devesa Sapena – “El Santeret” – to replace the original image that was destroyed during the Civil War in 1936 and dated back to at least 1769 when it was first mentioned to have participated in the first Good Friday procession in the town.

It was one of the most important images in the liturgical calendar of the Parish of San Bartolomé and occupied prominent positions inside the church and was maintained by the oldest brotherhood in the town. But during the 1970s, the image suffered what local historians have called “a curious iconoclastic ‘persecution'” and it was removed from worship, both from her place of honour in the presbytery throughout the year, and from her place in the Good Friday Santa Entierro until 2017 when she once against participated in the solemn procession, although in a different position to the more traditional once.

In March 2024, the image was carried by the Cofradía del Santo Rosario on the first ever Via Matris in the history of Xàbia, an opportunity to see the image up close and a procession that kicks off Semana Santa.