Our Lady of Consolation

Patron de Molina de Segura (Murcia)

On the outskirts of Molina de Segura, a hermitage raised with popular contributions guards Our Lady of Consolation, the patron of the city, whose primitive medieval image - destroyed in 1936 - tradition says found in the river.

Origin and history

The hermitage of Our Lady of Consolation has been in the same place since the mid-15th century, although with different buildings; the present temple, in modern shape, was raised with popular contributions around 1975- 1976 on the ancient hermitage. The early medieval image of the XIV-XV centuries was destroyed in 1936; the current size is the work of the Molinese sculptor Bernabé Gil, restored in 1993.

The local tradition, collected as "fable," tells that some laborers or bathers found the image based on a stone in the middle of the river and put it safe; the sources themselves emphasize that there is no documentary trace of that origin. She is a patron of Molina de Segura, with an intensely identifiable devotion, maintained by her brotherhood and expressed in processions and transfers of the image.

Date of the feast and canonical coronation: they are not safely recorded in the sources.