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San Pedro del Pinatar is once again preparing for the most important festival of the year. On July 16, everything is focused on the veneration of the Virgin Carmen, the patron saint of fishermen and other seafarers. Although this festival is celebrated almost everywhere along the coast, such as in Santiago de la Ribera, the activities in San Pedro are the most important. Because it is so large in scale, it even has the status of 'regional tourist interest'.
The highlight of the events is a sea procession in which a fleet of fishing boats and pleasure boats participate. It all starts early in the morning with a brass band playing music through San Pedro's streets. Afterwards, there is a religious service in the San Pedro Apostol church. Then a long procession, with a larger than life effigy of the patron saint, moves through the streets along the Mar Menor and Lo Pagan.
There, the statue is placed on one of the many decorated boats. On the water, offerings of flowers are made in memory of the local fishermen who found a sea grave there. Once back on the mainland, the large procession heads back to the church and fireworks are set off.
The devotion to the Virgin Carmen goes back a long way. Its roots lie in 300 BC when a long drought threatened the region’s existence. At the urging of the prophet Elias, the hungry were told to pray for rain. And so it happened. The rain came and Elias attributed the miracle to a savior born from the womb of the Virgin Carmen. She was said to bring blessings as well as rain.
The date of July 16 for the celebration is no coincidence. It was on that day in 1251 that Carmen appeared in a vision to the Englishman Simon Stock. She was wearing a scapula, a cloth that some religious orders drape over the shoulders. Her message: whoever wears the scapula will never have to suffer eternal fire after death.
Later in the Middle Ages, Carmen also became the patron saint of seafarers, who sailed rough waters.
