Fiesta de la Virgen del Carmen in Spain

The festivity of the Day of the Virgen del Carmen, the patron saint of sailors and the Spanish Navy, is celebrated on July 16 in style in most fishing villages along the Spanish coast. On this day, which continues to show off its religious character, fishermen thank the Virgin for having the opportunity to go out one more day to fish. And they do it through one of the most curious and spectacular traditions of his geography: a procession in the middle of the sea.

The Carmelite tradition tells that on July 16, 1251 the image of the Virgin of Mount Carmel appeared to Saint Simon Stock, superior general of the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. This Order was founded by some hermits who had retired to live on Mount Carmel in Israel, near the city of Haifa. Our Lady of Mount Carmel gave St. Simon her habits and scapular, one of the most notable signs of the Carmelite Marian cult. At that moment, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the story goes, promised to free from purgatory every person who wore her badge during her lifetime. Soon devotion to this virgin spread throughout the world. In Spain, fishermen named her the patron saint of sailors, their guarantor and protector at sea.