Monforte de Lemos: ¡Festas Patronais! Patron Saint’s Day Festival, the Virgin of Montserrat
This is a continuing series of photographs from our Galicia Road Trip (with a few stops in Asturias) this past August.
In my last post, we arrived in the city of Monforte de Lemos, a small town and municipality in northwestern Spain, in the province of Lugo, with a population under 20,000 people. But by the time we arrived in the city (August 14), those 20,000 people were already knee-deep in the annual Festas Patronais (Patron Saint Festival) to honor the Virgin of Montserrat (Virxe de Montserrat). It’s a pretty big deal with concerts, street performers, religious ceremonies, and cultural performances daily.
Oh, and it was no accident that we arrived on the 14th (besides it being Serena’s birthday), it was all part of my master plan to immerse ourselves into the folk culture of Galicia. The 15th of August is the Día de La Patrona (the Day of the Patron Saint), the peak of the cultural and traditional events featuring performances by Grupo Musical de Gaitucada Aikirindo (drums and bagpipes or “gaitas”) and O Grupo de Pandeireteiras (tambourines and folk dancing) in the historic Praza de España, the primary gateway to the city’s commercial center.
Amid all the festivities, however, were generational wildfires raging across the nearby region of Ourense – not to mention a heatwave (over 100 degrees!), which considerably degraded the air quality. The smell of smoke in the air, a hazy sky, and outdoor tables covered in a film of fine ash. You would think people would reconsider being outdoors, right? Well, you don’t know the Spanish people. A “festa” is a “festa” and a little heatwave and smoky air wasn’t gonna keep them at home.
But first, a little history on the aforementioned Virgin of Montserrat, yes?
Street musicians | Festas Patronais
The Virgin of Montserrat is a celebrated 12th-century wooden sculpture of the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus. Legends claim that the statue itself was originally carved in Jerusalem by St. Luke the Evangelist around 50 AD and brought to Spain by St. Peter. In 718 AD, to escape destruction by the Moorish invaders, the statue was taken to Barcelona where it disappeared from sight.
Legend also has it that sometime in 880 AD (does the exact date really matter?), a group of shepherds saw lights and heard singing on a mountainside in Catalonia (Spain) and on further investigation, found the statue enthroned on a ledge in a cavern (“Well, whaddya know!”). The villagers attempted to move the statue down to the nearby town of Manresa, but it mysteriously grew impossibly heavy. The locals interpreted this as a divine sign and as a result, a chapel was built at the cave, which eventually grew into the famous Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey, located on the mountain of Montserrat in Catalonia, Spain (on my travel list!).
Here’s a short video filmed with the Xiaomi 13 Ultra of some of the activity around the town leading up to the big evening show…
Despite the heat and smoky air, a good time was had by all. Over at my better half’s website, you can watch a wonderful recap video from our trip through Galicia. At the 4:43 mark of the video, you can view a few clips from the Festas Patronais including images from the evening show. In the meantime, here’s a gallery of images to peruse…
And when we finally ran out of gas and returned to our hotel (exhausted!), we just chilled on our balcony for a while, watching folks coming and going to the festival and admiring the spirit of the Spanish people who just don’t seem to want to go to bed without having a few “copas” with friends or family first…
And watching Serena still stealing a few photographs. Monforte de Lemos is a lovely place to visit should you find yourself in Galicia (and you really, really should find yourself here one day!) – especially during its Patron Saint’s Day Festival. To learn more about this vibrant city and its many yearly “festas”, visit www.monfortedelemos.es/turismo
