San Ciriaco Day

On August 8th San Ciriaco is celebrated. Why is there this devotion to this saint in Ibiza?

There is a chapel located at the beginning of the street of the same name, very close to the Convent of Ses Monges Tancades, in Dalt Vila dedicated to San Ciriaco and built in 1754.

It is a chapel of popular devotion built by the City Council in honor of San Ciriaco, patron saint of the city since 1650, whose feast day, August 8, coincides with the celebration of the Catalan conquest of 1235. Inside the chapel, under the altar, the mouth of a simulated tunnel relates this space to the entrance of the Christian conquerors.

James I established an infeudation contract with Guillem de Montgrí in exchange for the conquest of Ibiza and Formentera in a period of just under ten months. This initiative was joined by the prince Pedro of Portugal and the count of Roussillon Nuño Sánchez, who had established a similar contract with the previous king but did not make it effective. They would have the lordship of part of the two islands as vassals of Guillem de Montgrí. Thus, on August 8, 1235, the troops commanded by the archbishop conquered the town of Ibiza and its fall meant the fall of the rest of Ibiza and Formentera.

Saint Cyriacus of Attalia, also called Saint Cyriacus of Rome or simply Saint Cyriacus, was a Christian bishop and martyr, who died in 303. When the work for the discovery of the Cross of Christ was carried out in the holy city, at the initiative of the bishop of Jerusalem, Macarius, and the pious mother of the emperor Constantine, Helena, a Hebrew named Judas was present. Among the first miracles worked by the Holy Cross was the conversion of this Hebrew.