Mater Desolata Penitential Brotherhood and Most Holy Christ of the Agony and the Holy Spirit

It is composed of several initials from the Brotherhood's name. At its centre is a cross overlaid with the letters M and P, referring to the Mater Desolata Penitential Brotherhood. This represents Mary at the foot of the empty Cross. The entire design is black and features a wrought-iron effect.

It was founded on 30 April 1948 under the name of the Penitential Brotherhood of Our Father Jesus before the Praetorium, reviving the former Brotherhood of the Sentence, which had processed through the streets of Alicante in the previous century.

On 9 November of the same year, seven months later, it was decided to change its name to the Mater Desolata Penitential Brotherhood. It took part in processions with the image of the Virgin in desolation before the empty Cross, a work by sculptor Juan Giner Masegosa.

The establishment of this Penitential Brotherhood was the initiative of officials from the former National Social Security Institute. Its first president was the Provincial Delegate in Alicante, Mr Pablo Espejo Maroto.

Since its first procession in 1949, it has always taken part on Good Friday. However, in 1959 it stopped participating in Alicante Holy Week after being denied permission to move its procession to Holy Saturday.

On 2 January 1985, the Brotherhood was reorganised and resumed its processional activities, setting out from the Parish of Saint Mary. In its previous period, it had processed from the Parish of Our Lady of Grace.

Between 1990 and 1993, the Brotherhood once again faced the possibility of dissolution, this time due to its dwindling membership and a lack of organisational responsibility within the group. This did not ultimately happen. In 1994, a group of members took on the responsibility of rebuilding the Brotherhood with a new project and finding a new home for the organisation. Its canonical seat was established at the Parish of Saint Joseph of Carolinas, in the Las Carolinas neighbourhood.

Interestingly, on 1 May 1947, the minutes of a meeting of the Board of Holy Week Brotherhoods and Guilds recorded the intention of the parish priest of Saint Joseph of Carolinas to establish a new guild that would take part in processions in 1948. This proposal was not carried out at the time. However, as mentioned above, the Mater Desolata Brotherhood would eventually fulfil this intention, without being aware of its original connection, when it established its new home at the Parish of Saint Joseph in 1994.

In 2012, the Brotherhood added a small Crucifix to its procession, carried by students from the sixth form at San José de Carolinas School. Following the positive reception of this float and several years of work, a new sculpture of Christ of the Agony and the Holy Spirit, created by Seville-based sculptor Mr José María Leal, was blessed in 2018. It made its first penitential procession on the night of Good Friday 2019.

This guild, together with the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre and the Guild of Our Lady of Solitude of Saint Mary, forms part of the Procession of the Holy Burial, the city's official procession.

Musical contribution to Alicante Holy Week

• Mater Desolata · Antonio Carrillos, “Processional March”. Dedicated to the Brotherhood of the same name. Premiered on 2 March 2002 by the Carolinas Band at the Church of Saint Joseph.