In Alghero, the events of Holy Week in Alghero are full of suggestion and history. They are organized by the Brotherhood of Mercy, also known as the Jermanes Blancs, whose presence has been attested to in the Catalan town since the 16th century.

The fulcrum of devotional worship, as well as a destination for pilgrimages, during the week of Passion is an articulated wooden simulacrum, called Santcristus, kept in the church of Our Lady of Mercy and which tradition has it arrived in Alghero in 1606, following the wreck of a sailing ship from Alicante. Once upon a time, the Santcristus de La Misericordia was used in the Good Friday procession. However, since 1997, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage has issued a ban on the use of the original, which is too fragile and exposed to the risk of damage, during rites. For this reason, today a copy made in 1998 by a local craftsman is used for the processions.

On Tuesday, the procession of the Mysteries unfolds, during which the symbols of the Passion of Christ are carried in procession.

On Friday of Passion, the procession starts from the Gothic church of San Francesco in Alghero and, accompanied by psalmodial songs, marches through the streets. This procession is also called de las dames, due to the fact that it is traditionally composed of women dressed in black clothes who follow the simulacrum of the Virgin of Sorrows. On the night of Holy Thursday, the statue of the Sorrowful Christ is transported from the Church of Mercy to the Cathedral of Santa Maria, where the alburament takes place, that is, the raising of the simulacrum in the center of the altar, guarded by the confreres for the entire night.

In the afternoon of the next day, a liturgy of mourning is celebrated in the Cathedral; late in the evening, however, the desclavament takes place, during which four barons (barons) dressed in oriental clothing lay the Christ on the coffin called bressol, an admirable work in baroque style decorated in pure gold. This is carried through the streets of the Catalan city now shrouded in twilight and illuminated by the soft light of candles.

The celebrations of Holy Week in Alghero

The rites of Holy Week in Alghero involve numerous Italian and Catalan brotherhoods and are organized by the Brotherhood of Mercy, also known as the Germans Blancs, under the patronage of the Municipal Administration.

The celebrations kick off with the Procession of Our Lady of Sorrows that takes place late in the afternoon of Good Friday, at dusk. In the light of red torches, called lanterns, carried by women, the simulacrum of the Virgin of the Seven Sorrows is conducted from the church of San Francesco through the streets of the historic center. Four copies of the image of Our Lady of Sorrows are preserved in Alghero, in different churches, used in different ceremonies.

On Holy Tuesday, the Processò dels Misteris (the Procession of Mysteries) takes place, which starts from the church of San Francesco and heads towards the cathedral of Santa Maria, accompanied by the six statues, carried on the shoulder, which represent the most significant moments of the Passion of Christ and which coincide with the five painful mysteries of the Rosary. The sculptural groups represent in order: Jesus in the olive garden, the scourging, the coronation of thorns, Jesus who bears the burden of the Cross, the Crucified Christ and, finally, the procession of Our Lady of Sorrows closes.

The celebrations continue on Maundy Thursday with the two ceremonies of Las Cerques and the Arboramento. The Las Cerques procession moves from the Church of Mercy, home of the Brotherhood, carrying a small statue of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows who, wandering from church to church, is desperately looking for her Son. The search gives no results and, thus, the procession sadly brings the Madonna back to the Church of Mercy (until the mid-twentieth century the procession started and ended in the ancient Church of the Rosary, now home to the Diocesan Museum). After the rite of Las Cerques, the Santcristus starts from the same church, accompanied by a long, quiet and suggestive procession that ends in the cathedral for the Rite of the Arborament (a term operating a synthesis between the biblical and liturgical expression arbor crucis and the verb arborar used by Alghero sailors to indicate the action of hoisting sails). The Santcristus comes to the Cathedral for the solemn ceremony of raising the cross by the confreres of Mercy. From that moment on, and throughout the following day, Christ on the Cross, watched over in turn by the confreres, was venerated by a crowd of faithful who stopped beside him in sad recollection.

The Good Friday celebrations begin around eight in the evening after the adoration of the Cross, which is popularly called the Fugi Fugi Mass and takes place in the Cathedral. A procession directed to the church of Santa Maria, moving from that of Mercy, proceeds along the narrow streets of the old city and brings, in addition to the tools needed to remove Jesus from the Cross (pliers and hammer), also the long wooden stairs on which two of the four barons will climb to carry out the work. These, formerly chosen only among noble citizens or graduates, now among the confreres of Mercy, impersonate Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. The statues of Saint John and Our Lady of Sorrows, which accompany the above-mentioned bressol, also parade in this procession.

The most intense and dramatic moment of this day and of the entire Holy Week is the rite of Desclavament (the removal of Christ from the cross), with which every year the community relives the painful moment of the deposit. The rite begins as soon as the procession enters the Cathedral and each character of the sacred representation is in his place. The preacher gives the beginning of a sermon that until not many years ago used the ancient language of the city and traces the life of Jesus, focusing on the salient events of the Passion, up to the culminating moment of the celebration: that of the deposition. The procession then begins during which the simulacrum of the dead Christ is carried, with all the symbols of the Passion, along the streets of the city illuminated by the lanterns and the lights of the streetlights that for the occasion are covered with a red cloth. The rite ends late at night in the Oratory of Mercy.

On the morning of Easter Sunday, around ten o'clock, there is a meeting between the two statues of the Risen Christ and the Glorious Madonna. At the same time, from the churches of Saint Francis and of Mercy there are two separate processions that accompany, respectively, the Virgin and the Triumphant Christ. These meet in the cheering crowd, amidst the gunfire of rifles and mortaretti, as a sign of joy, accompanied by the festive sound of the bells of all the churches. The two statues bow before each other and the two processions merge, continuing on a short itinerary accompanied by arts and crafts guilds (gremi) with their banners. Subsequently, the two statues return to the Church of Mercy, where Easter Mass is celebrated in Catalan and the blessed bread is distributed.

History of the event

Even today, the Seventh Saint of Alghero is an event much felt by the population, as well as a moment of strong tourist attraction as it attracts faithful and tourists from all over Sardinia and from the Catalan communities of Spain.

The rites of Holy Week, most likely dating back to the end of the 16th century, date back to the period of the Catholic reform.

The Brotherhood of Our Lady of Mercy (Confraria dels Germans Blancs), has its origins in the penitential movement of the White Disciplined. Together with the Archconfraternity of Gonfalone, in the beginning it had the task of collecting alms for the redemption of Christians enslaved by Barbary privateers. Around the middle of the 17th century, the Brotherhood decided to build the Oratory of Mercy, inside which the seventeenth-century simulacrum of the Crucifix will be kept.

Even today, the Seventh Saint of Alghero is an event conceived by the people of Alghero as part of their cultural identity, as well as a moment of strong tourist appeal, able to attract faithful and tourists from all over Sardinia and from the Catalan communities of Spain.