Holy Saturday
Virgen de la Soledad de los Pobres, Cartagena, Murcia, Spain
Like many cities of southern Spain, Cartagena observes the week before Easter with a series of magnificent processions carried out by devotional confraternities. The oldest of these societies is that of the Marrajos, whose full name is Cofradía de Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno, Confraternity of Our Father Jesus the Nazarene. The Marrajos support devotion to Jesus and Mary under many different titles. Among these is the Virgin of Grief of the Poor (literally, Virgin of Solitude, bereft after Jesus' crucifixion), whose statue they commissioned in 1956 from the Murcian sculptor Juan González Moreno. On the Saturday night before Palm Sunday (Passion Saturday), the Virgin's statue processes through the streets from another church to the Church of Santa Maria de Gracia. On the night before Easter (Holy Saturday), it is the last image in the huge procession. Another ceremony in honor of the Grieving Virgin of the Poor takes place on the last Saturday in October. The confraternity's nickname came about because many of its original members were fishermen, who promised to give the brotherhood the proceeds from the sale of any mako sharks (marrajos) they caught.
Photo source: "Centenario del Nacimiento de González Moreno, Escultor," Geohistoire, marquesgeohistorico.blogspot.com/2008/03/juan-gonzalez-moreno-escultor-de.html
Also commemorated this date:
 | Beata Vergine Maria Addolorata, Albano di Lucania, Potenza, Basilicata, Italy (Sorrowful Blessed Virgin Mary). Predawn street procession. |
| Maria Santissima Addolorata, Castellana Grotte, Bari, Apulia, Italy. Procession. |