Our Lady of Tejeda

Garaballa Trinitarian Sanctuary (Cuenca)

By the river Ojos de Moya, the Monasterio- shrine of Tejeda keeps the Virgin who, according to tradition, was found on a tile in 1205; patron of Garaballa and Mira, is famous for her "Septenario," the traveling feast that every seven years she walks through the people of the region.

Origin and history

The pious tradition places the origin of the cult in 1205, when the image was found or appeared to a pastor named John on a tejo tree (taxus), next to a cave near the river, from which it would derive the name Tejeda; the ancient versions doubt between the tejo and the cave. The Monasterio- sanctuary rose near the place of the find, by the river Ojos de Moya, linked to the arrival of the Calzados Trinitarios, who built the convent and the church. The ensemble met its apogee in the 18th and early 19th century. During the civil war the monastery was assaulted; the old image was safe and the one that is venerated today is a copy, the image of wearing with the Child on the left arm.

She is a patron of Garaballa and, in a shared way, of the nearby village of Mira. The most characteristic devotional feature is its strong pilgrim and rogative dimension: the "Septenary of the Virgin of Tejeda" is celebrated every seven years in memory of the rogative of 1639, when the image was moved in procession to implore the end of a severe drought. This septenary involves the transfer of the Virgin through various peoples of the region, preserving her intercede character in the needs of the earth.

Canonical coronation: not found in the sources.