Brotherhood of the Arrest and Our Lady of Consolation

At the centre is a saltire cross, representing humiliation and suffering. The name of the Brotherhood appears in a circular arrangement, with a symbolic mountain representing Faith inside it. Above the mountain are the hands of God blessing the world, alongside chains symbolising God's bonds with the earthly world. The entire design is set against a “hospital green” background, reflecting the Brotherhood's origins and its connection with the healthcare community.

Like many of the floats that appear in Alicante's brotherhoods and guilds, the Arrest and the Washing of the Feet originally had their own brotherhoods in the 19th century. However, like the vast majority of them, they disappeared during the tragic events that took place in our city in the 1930s.

The Brotherhood was founded in 1997 by residents of Alicante's Raval Roig neighbourhood. Following the closure of the emblematic Alicante Provincial Hospital and the reassignment of its staff to different centres across the city, there was a desire to preserve the bonds between former colleagues.

They saw the establishment of a Holy Week Brotherhood as a fitting way to reflect the connection between their work at the former hospital—providing relief, comfort and healing—and Christ's total and absolute self-sacrifice for others on the Cross.

Another memory has shaped the Brotherhood since its beginnings: the former hospital chapel, which housed an image of the Virgin visited by patients and their families in the hope of finding consolation. For this reason, a statue of Our Lady of Sorrows was commissioned under the invocation of Our Lady of Consolation. It made its first appearance in the 1997 procession, alongside the newly created Arrest float, bringing back one of the scenes from the Passion traditionally represented during Alicante Holy Week. A few years later, in 2000, the Washing of the Feet float was added.

The Brotherhood was formally established on 5 September 1996 with the aim of strengthening the bonds of unity, friendship and solidarity among former employees of the Provincial Hospital and local residents, especially those from the Pla neighbourhood, who wished to join. The new Brotherhood took part in Alicante Holy Week for the first time on Holy Monday in 1997.

Today, most of the Brotherhood's members are residents of this Alicante neighbourhood.

As a reminder of the members' hospital past, the Brotherhood's members wear white and green, colours long associated with the healthcare sector.

Musical contributions to Holy Week

• Jesus of the Arrest. Miguel Ángel Ivorra Olmedo
• Our Lady, Mother of Consolation. Miguel Ángel Ivorra Olmedo