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El Vitor: Mayorga de Campos
By m.p. - Sep 25, 2007 - 8:02 AM
ALSO SEE : • El Rocio pilgrimage reaches its climax - May 12, 2008 - 7:06 AM
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This fiesta in Valladolid has a strong link to Peru
Mayorga de Campos, in Valladolid, Castilla y León, is noted as the birthplace of Saint Turibius of Mogroveio (Santo Toribio Alfonso de Mogrobejo), the town’s patron saint and also patron saint of Peru, of the bishops of Latin America, and of native rights.

He was born into a noble family in Mayorga in 1538, and, after a brilliant success as a law student, was appointed professor of law at the prestigious Salamanca University.
Still a layman at this stage, he was appointed by King Philip II in 1571 as chief of the ecclesiastical court of the Inquisition of Granada.

His qualities led to his being chosen to fill the vacant position of Archbishop of Lima, Peru. Turibius was ordained as a priest in 1578 and later consecrated as a bishop.
Arriving in Peru in May 1581, he is famous not only for founding the first seminary in the Americas, but also for fighting for the rights of the native peoples of Peru against their Spanish rulers. He gave the catechism in Quechua and Aimarac, as well as in castellano.
He died in Saña in 1606.
Turibius was beatified by Pope Innocent XI on 2nd July 1679, and canonised by Benedict XIII in 1726.

Now, his birthplace remembers him with El Vitor, a night procession declared National Tourist Interest which takes place every 27th September. It is held to commemorate the torch-lit procession which took place in 1737 to accompany the Saint’s relics as they were brought back to his village.

Today’s procession (La Procesión Cívica de El Vitor) starts off at 10.30 pm from the Santo Toribio Chapel - the family home where the saint was born - and carries on until it returns back to the starting point in the early hours of the morning.

All who take part can be seen dressed in their oldest clothes, gloves and large straw hats to protect themselves from the star of this celebration: fire.
The 18th century torches are replaced with wine skins hanging at the end of a large pole. Previously soaked in pitch, dried out, then soaked in wine for seven days before being dried out again, the skins are set alight on the night of the procession in honour of the patron saint, as drops of pitch spatter down below.
It ends outside the chapel, where the blazing skins are put out, and a last homage is paid to the saint.


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