 |
The Fraternity of
Our Father Jesus ‘El Divino Cautivo’ (‘The Divine Captive’)
was founded in the year 1944, being Father Francisco Toral, Governing of
the ‘Colegio Calasancio’ (Calasancio College). In fact, the
Brotherhood was approved on 10th March 1944. Its first Governing Body was
composed by Mr. Joaquin Bau, prominent financer; Mr. Esteban Pérez; Mr.
Victor de la Serna; Mr. Mariano Benlliure and Mr. Demetrio Mestre Fernández,
Chairman of the Spanish Telephone Company, who became the first Chairman
of the Fraternity.
The original Standing Rules of the Brotherhood of ‘El Divino Cautivo’ were approved by the Archbishop of Madrid, Dr. Leopoldo Eijo Garay, on 9th May 1944.
|
The Fraternity has been,
since its origins, strongly linked to the ‘Colegio Calasancio’.
Actually, this College, located at the popular, well-known and
central neighbourhood named, ‘Barrio de Salamanca’, in the city
of Madrid, being originally a school, was converted in a jail,
‘Prisión de Porlier’ (Porlier prison), during the Spanish civil
war and post-war, from 1936 to 1944. Thus, this Brotherhood was
set up as a result of the former college conversion in a prison and,
then, its return to become a school, again. Furthermore, it was
erected in memory of imprisonned people’s suffering of sorrow and
martyrdom in there, throughout those tragic years. In addition, the
Fraternity was also set up to
mitigate, henceforth, prisoners’ punishments and to help the
generosity of pardons. |
FILE of the FRATERNITY |
|
|
Remembering the prosecution
happened during those years, the Fraternity wanted to take as its
Incumbent, the Image of Christ with His hands tied, a figure who
corresponds to the ingrained and widespread iconography of Jesus as
a captive man. Mr. Mariano Benlliure, renowned Valencian artist,
settled in Madrid, was selected to make the sculpture. His work was
based on and inspired by the sentence, ‘Rex sum ego’
(‘I am the King’). Benlliure stamped on the figure all the
Majesty of God made man. The carving was delivered on 5th April
1944. Thirty thousand pesetas (about 200 euros) were paid for it. |
||
|
|
In
the immediate Holy Week, on 30th March 1945, the Brotherhood held its
first procession, on Good Friday, accompanying
the Procession of Silence, staged by the Fraternity of ‘Los
Cruzados de la Fe’ (The Crusaders of Faith), procession which, at that
time, was constituted by several partial ones, which set off, together,
from the square called, ‘Puerta del Sol’ in the central area of
Madrid. This way of processing
has been repeated until the year 1994 when the Fraternity of ‘El
Divino Cautivo’ was never again integrated in the said Procession of
Silence. In fact, it became independent and began to process on its own
through central streets of the city. This first individual procession went
out from the ‘Colegio Calasancio’, at 16, Diego de León street and,
then, it continued through the following streets: Velázquez, Goya, Génova,
Santa Bárbara, Hortaleza and Montera, joining the Procession of Silence
to go on through ‘calle de Alcalá’, ‘Plaza
de la Cibeles’, ‘Plaza de la Independencia’, ‘calle
Serrano’ and again, ‘calle de Diego de León’ . |
|
Since
1951, as decreed in the Rule of its Ordinances, the Brotherhood began to
hold another penitencial procession, at dusk of Holy Thursday, to go
through the main streets of its neigbourhood. This procession
has been staged until nowadays. That year of
1951, the route went through ‘Conde de Peñalver’, ‘Goya’, ‘Génova’,
streets; ‘Alonso Martinez’ square, ‘Hortaleza’ street, performing
a Station of Penitence at the ‘Colegio Calasancio de San Antón’ and
continuing through ‘Farmacia’, ‘Colón’ and ‘Valverde’ streets.
Finally, the Image went into the convent of ‘Madres Mercedarias’ (Mercedarian
Mothers), at ‘Puebla’ street, to spend the night there. The day after,
It went out again to join the Procession of Silence. In 1952, a Board of Ladies
joined the Brotherhood organisation chart, with the ambitious project of
adding to the Fraternity a religious float representing the Image of the
Very Holy Virgin, something that did not finally happen. The first
Chairwoman was Her Excellency, Mrs. Carmen Franco de Martinez Bordiú,
Marchioness of Villaverde. Indeed, there is no certainty that the
Brotherhood had ever had a Marian Carving. In 1956, as a result of the
Brotherhood splendour, appeared for the first time, the current religious
float, which the Incumbent
Image processes on. It is a work made of golden wood, on gothic style with
Highrelieves depicting different stages of the Passion and Death of Our
Sir, from the religious workshop named, ‘Casa Alsina’. The Brotherhood has been
accompanied in its processions, from 1956 to some some years later, by
three squadrons of Roman soldiers dressed to the old one use, remembering
the same robes worn by the soldiers of the Roman Empire under which the
drama of the Passion and Death of Christ took place. |
|
|
|
|
|
Once
more, given that the ingrained link, since its origins, between the
Brotherhood and Justice, the Fraternity has received, from 1959 to 1969,
including both years, the privilege, granted by the Ministry of Justice,
to concede freedom, every Holy Week, to a common prisoner, coming from the
Provincial Prison called, ‘Prisión de Carabanchel’. This prisoner,
wearing the Brotherhood Nazarene tunic, went out accompanying ‘El
Divino
Cautivo’
in His procession through the streets of Madrid. When
the procession arrived at the Royal Mail House, (in those days, see of the
General Direction of Security), the religious float of ‘El
Divino Cautivo’
was placed in front of the building main door. Then, three brothers,
members of the Governing Body, went into the building carrying an empty
long hooded robe. Few minutes later, they were four men who went out of it,
one of them carrying one thick and heavy cross that, even now is called,
‘the prisoner’s cross’. The
Minutes of the Brotherhood refer to this singular ceremony of a prisoner’s
release in the first year it ocurred: ‘Yesterday
night, fair, pallid, God made man went out. I was there, waiting
for the prisoner without any name, without any number, but with his heart,
with his soul, with his hands free, now...I am who you are looking for¡.
There was, without the prisoner to have noticed that, an evocation of the
scene of the Master, at the Garden of Olives, when they arrived to capture
Him. Since I had been punished for four years and one day, sixteen months
were lacking to fulfil my punishment in the ‘Cárcel de carabanchel’.
He is continuing the story, ‘as a doctor I were, I had been destined to
the prison first-aid post and, at that moment, I was talking to the
general practitioner about freedom. Suddenly, the door is opened:The
Brotherhood of ‘El
Divino Cautiv’
has asked for and has been granted the privilege to release a prisoner.
The Director of the prison told me you are the selected prisoner. I can
not believed that...Meetings still happen at the same Procession of
Silence. Principal Father gave him a fraternal embrace...I have studied
with the Escolapian Fathers. I promise you I will become worthy of this
pardon and I will be a part of this Brotherhood’.In
the end of this mysterious and warm meeting, the author of the story
concludes telling how the prisoner, behind the hood linen, was in floods
of tears. Since
its foundation up to the present time, Major Brothers have been: Mr.
Demetrio Mestre, Mr. Alberto de Barbacid, Mr. José Mª Melis, Mr. Antonio
Gullón Walker, Mr. José Mª Montesinos and Mr. Pedro Gómez Martínez. On
26th April, 1991, His Majesty the King Juan Carlos I, -Major Brother of
Honour, according to the Governing Body agreement of February 24th 1971,
when the king was Prince of Asturias,- granted to the Brotherhood, on 26th
April 1991, the title and treatment of ‘Royal’. Information
and photographies taken from the File of the Brotherhood and from the book
‘History of The holy Week of Madrid’,
Mariano Rivera Vázquez and Enrique Guevara Pérez. |
|
