Hermandad del Santísimo Cristo de la Buena Muerte y Nuestra Señora de las Angustias

Foundation year: 1926

Canonical See: Santa Iglesia Concathedral of San Nicolás de Bari

Images:

Santísimo Christ of the Good Death • Anonymous 16th century

Our Lady of Sorrows • Francisco Salzillo 18th century

Shield:

It is made up of its central axis by the Holy Cross of Jerusalem. As the central body of the shield we find a Crismón, symbol of the first Christian communities representing Christ and the anagram of Mary, in memory of the Marian titleholder of the Brotherhood.

Dress:

It is traditional for this Brotherhood to wear a black tunic and mask. They wear a red cape, and the shield of the brotherhood on the mask. Complete the black shoe habit and the corporation medal.

History:

Thanks to the article published on March 28, 2002 in the Diario Información de Alicante, titled 75 Anniversary of the Christ of the Good Death, which was written and signed by Ana María García Mesa, widow of M. Montesinos Gómiz, (who was the first president -founder of the Greater Board of Brotherhoods and Brotherhoods of Holy Week in Alicante), we know the history of the Brotherhood of Christ of Good Death before the Republic, since the minutes of the meetings were either lost or destroyed.

The brotherhood was born in the spring of 1926 at the initiative of a group of young people who wanted to establish a Procession of Silence in the city of Alicante.

Led by Manuel Montesinos Gómiz, second lieutenant of artillery in the reserve and last-year law student, doctor Ramón Guillen Tato, Carlos Frías, City Council official, and Rafael Gosálvez, went to inform the vicar of San Nicolás, Luis Campello of their intention to take out in procession the carving popularly known as Christ of the chairs, located at the end of the San Nicolás temple and that all of them were collected under its altar.

The crucified man was originally from the confiscated convent that the Dominican fathers had on Calle Mayor (today the Amérigo Building) and, since it was demolished in the mid-19th century, the carving was cared for by the Marquis of Río-Florido, who built a small altar for it. in San Nicolás. These young people convinced more friends, and they had the help of their family members to make their dream come true. The name of the brotherhood was the idea of Anita García Mesa who was the fiancee of Manuel Montesinos, because although she lived in Alicante due to the businesses that her family had on the Mediterranean coast, she was from Malaga and felt great devotion to the well-known Christ of the Good Death of his land (Cristo de Mena).

The construction of the pass was carried out, mainly, thanks to Balbina Gómiz, president of the Royal Arch-Confraternity of the Virgen del Remedio, daughter of Manuel Gómiz and one of the fortunes of the time that was who made it possible for the congregations of nuns of Jesús-María and that of the Adorer mothers settled in Alicante and, together with the Escrivá de Romaní, helped in the construction of the primitive parish of Benalúa and its schools. The Alicante painter Heliodoro Guillén Pedemonti made the design of the carved panels with scenes from the Passion of Christ.

When they left for the first time, in 1927, there were only 11 for the 24 seats that the newly built pass had and the founders had to raise money to pay porters from whom they were rented for that purpose and be able to go out in procession.

Until the 1930s, the young brotherhood left on Holy Thursday, from San Nicolás, crossing the Santa Cruz neighborhood and, going down the Rambla, to the Plaza de Alfonso XII (today the town hall) and from there, after stopping in front of the Casa Ansaldo -ancestors of the Gómiz-, crossed the clock tower of the consistory and climbed through Villavieja to Santa María. On the night of Good Friday he would leave Santa María, accompanying the Procession of the Holy Burial and, at the end, he would return to San Nicolás in the early hours of Saturday.

On April 3, 1931, during the tour, the procession was interrupted by riots that occurred, and in May the burning of convents began.

The carving remained hidden during the Republic and the Civil War, bricked up like the rest of the images of the chapels of San Nicolás. The Marist school or the Salesian school had already been burned, the precious altarpiece of the Virgen de los Ángeles, located in the hermitage of the Alicante neighborhood of Los Ángeles, or a Saint Peter signed by the painter José de Ribera who was in the Capuchinas.

After the war, religious worship was resumed in the national territory and in Holy Week 1940 the Christ of the Good Death returned in procession, but only on Thursdays and together with the Virgen de las Angustias, it also opened a new chapel built by the provincial architect Juan Vidal Ramos.1

Older brothers were elected, José Tato from 1927 to 1931, Francisco Alberola Sr., after the Civil War and Luis Badías from 1949.

Thanks to articles published by Gonzalo Vidal Tur in Pasión and other media, we know that Our Lady of Sorrows had its own brotherhood since 1893, by agreement of Francisco Alberola Canterác, the priest Manuel Gálbis, the pharmacist Martínez Pacheco, Rafael Pastor, Rafael Gandulla, and Juan Antonio Masanet. Ladies of the Caturla family always appeared as ladies of the Virgin.

He went out in procession, accompanying the Holy Burial, on Good Friday, from the Basilica of Santa María. During the Civil War, she remained hidden in the “Aliaga” farm owned by the Caturla family in the La Florida neighborhood.

From 1940 he went on to accompany the Christ of the Good Death and both merging into a new brotherhood and both steps began to go out together on Holy Thursday. In the eighties he was on the verge of not leaving the passage of the Virgin but, at the initiative of the employees of the Bank of Alicante, the problem was solved, since they took over most of the sites of the passage.

Musical contribution to Holy Week

• Fanfare • Anonymous Arrangement
• Prayer to the Christ of the Good Death • José Vicente Leal Clavel. Music poems by José María Pemán dedicated to the Christ of the Good Death in two versions: lyric soprano and organ (prayer) and choir and assembly (prayer). Composed in the year 2017. It is interpreted in the official acts of the brotherhood.

Web: Hermandad del Santísimo Cristo de la Buena Muerte y Nuestra Señora de las Angustias