Our Lady of the Source

Zayas de Torre (Soria) pattern · Live parish return

In the skirt of Alto del Castroin the Ribera del Duero Soriana, the small town of Zayas de Torre venera from old to Our Lady of the SourceYour employer. Each 27 May - the first patron parties of the whole region - the neighbors, the zayensesThey are accompanied by music, dance and a devotion transmitted from generation to generation.

Main data

The village and its church of San Martín de Tours

Zayas de Torre is a small Soriana town located in the skirt of the Alto del Castro, at about 937 meters of altitude, on which the traditional wineries excavated in the rock are still preserved. It belongs to the municipality of Near Dueroin the heart of Ribera del Duero Soriana, and its term bears memory of the Cid: by these lands Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar passed on leaving Burgos on the way to exile, and therefore Zayas is part of the itinerary of the Cid Route.

The heart of the people is his iglesia parroquial de San Martín de Tours, a remarkable temple Romanesque of the 12th century. It stands out for its great cover of cysterciense flavour, protected by a porticated gallery, with eight vast arquivoltas - most of which are bachetonadas -, being especially beautiful the second, decorated with a triple bacheton in zigzag. Inside, with a single ship and a Latin cross plant, the cruise keeps wall paintings under the vault, from which a censary hangs. The presbytery looks like a Baroque altarpiece whose main figure is Saint Martin on horseback, at the time of breaking his cloak with the beggar; a chapel keeps a beautiful Mercy And on the altar, the image of Saint Isidro. Along with the Virgin of the Source, Saint Martin - whose feast is celebrated on November 11 - is the other great patron that tradition claims to watch over the inhabitants of Zayas.

The hermitage and the image

On the hill of Castro, next to the era of the village, the hermitage known as ermita de San Roque, also called hermitage of the Virgin of the Source for taking in the employer. Around her and her image is the greatest feast of the people: from there the Virgin comes out to preside over the celebrations of her great days. The image, much loved by the neighbors, is carefully guarded and venerated throughout the year, and its name - "of the Source" - links it, like so many Marian asvocations, to a spring or watershed of the environment, a natural sign of life and grace that popular piety has always associated with Mary.

The Party and the Pilgrimage of May 27

The patron parties of Zayas de Torre, in honor of Our Lady of the Source, are held around the 27 May - or the last weekend of the month - and they have the honor of being the first patron parties in the entire region. According to the tradition of the people, the image is taken in procession from the hermitage to the parish church of San Martín de Tourswhere the religious ceremonies of the days of feast are held; after these, the last day the Virgin is returned to her hermitage, again in procession, accompanied by the music and dances of the neighbors.

The festive atmosphere is intense and cheerful: Zayas each year contracts some of the best orchestras of the region, and among the traditional sones sound the pasodelos, some segovian or burgalese jota and, as a deal, the famous one Jota de la Rueda, the characteristic jota of the earth. With humor, the neighbors themselves attribute the Virgin of the Fuente to the wet freshness that comes down from the Alto del Castro in those days of May.

The dances of the Virgin

One of the most intimate features of the party is the dances who accompany the Virgin in her processions. The men of the people, who printed a solemn and ceremonial air to the dance, proper to an offering to the patron, were executed by the men of the people. Today, women also participate in a tradition that is still alive and that every spring replaces themselves at the service of Our Lady of the Source.

Anecdotes and party color

The Feasts of the Virgin of the Source have the honour of being the the first of the whole region of the Burgo of Osma, and who comes from outside immediately discovers the local taste. In Zayas it is called "eating to dinner," so that the snack is served already in the evening; the music starts when the afternoon falls and only a stop, after midnight, to restore strength.

At the heat of the bonfire, with the clear wine pudding of the Ribera, the neighbors repeat with a sornah that "the smoke always goes to the most beautiful." And of the Jota de la Rueda - the great jota of the land that accompanies the Virgin - they say in laughter that "it begins one day and ends two or three days later." At the table of the feast there is no lack of the lamb chuletilla of the race ojalada, native to Soria, nor the roast congio, which the Sorians have as "the king fish."

Favors and popular devotion

La devoción de los zayenses to her employer has always been deep and grateful. The memory of the people attributes to the intercession of Our Lady of the Source numerous favors and miracles received over generations, the reason for the fidelity with which their feast, their pilgrimage and the care of their image are maintained. Today, Asociación Virgen de la Fuente de Zayas de Torre helps to sustain this devotional and community life. These testimonies belong to the field of popular piety and the thanks of the faithful, and not to a formal ecclesiastical declaration.

As in so many village shrines, these favors are not kept in records or in chronicles, but in the grateful memory of families: the regained health, the rain arrived in time for the countryside, the returning son, the conjured danger. None of this has been the subject of an ecclesiastical process - nor does the Church demand it to bless a people's devotion to their Mother - but it explains why, generation after generation, Zayas de Torre continues to go up every May to seek his Virgin of the Source.

Mary, the Source of grace

The title "Our Lady of the Source" contains a very ancient image of the Christian faith: that of Mary as a spring and channel through which God makes the living water of his grace available to men. As St. Bernardo taught, all God wants to give us, he wanted us to come by Mary's hands. In this corner of Soria, this truth is made romance, singing and dance every May. Who approaches Our Lady of the Source can prolong her visit by praying the Holy Rosarythe simple and constant prayer with which Mary, in all her advocacy, always leads us to her Son.