Our Lady of Monserrate

Patrona de Orihuela (Alicante)

Patrona de Orihuela, Our Lady of Monserrate is to be venerated in her sanctuary in the Rabaloche district; tradition makes her found in a cave after the reconquest, and is invoked by the city in its calamities.

Origin and history

Tradition maintains that the sanctuary was raised over an ancient Gode parish of San Julián and that the image was found after the reconquest in a cave or hidden place, placing the find to 1306. Devotion is linked to the city "from before its reconquest."

In the early 17th century he was declared co-patron of Orihuela, and his patronage was canonically confirmed by the Holy See in 1920. It is the object of a deep-rooted civic devotion: in the public calamities it was taken in procession to the cathedral, and each year it is celebrated its festive and nocturnal.

Canonical coronation as such is not recorded in the sources.