Looking For Saint Basilissa
In 1862, a song's words were finally put into writing. For time immemorial, it was said, the words had been sung. The people knew them without there having been a need for them to have been written down. Even when they were, the chances would have been that the written words would have been meaningless: the peasant community of Campos would not have been literate.
Goig is a word derived from the Latin "gaudium", which means joy, pleasure or delight. It means the same thing in Catalan but it is also a verse in praise of the Virgin Mary or saints, and it was from Catalan that this verse genre came. It is defined as a poetic composition, popular in character, which is sung collectively to give thanks or as a prayer to ask for the physical and spiritual health of a community.
The Campos goigs are for the martyred saints, Julià and Basilissa. Husband and wife, they were martyred in Antioch in 304 on the order of Diocletian, the Roman emperor who notched up more martyrs than any other. His tally, however, is open to considerable debate. This is due to the fact that the existence of some of those who were martyred is questionable. On balance, though, it would seem that Julià (Julian) and Basilissa were real enough.
On Wednesday evening, the good folk of Campos gathered for the goigs, which are always referred to in the plural even if - strictly speaking - there is just the one. The song starts: "We have come to honour with all our devotion ... our patron, glorious Saint Julian." The title of this, as was committed to the written word in 1862, is "Goigs dels sants màrtirs Julià i Basilissa". Yet, as might be noted in the opening, there is no mention of Basilissa. She isn't referred to until the third verse, and this verse confirms the story of the couple. They married, but they served (God) "with great purity" and remained virgins.
The images of Julian and Basilissa are next to each other in Sant Julià Church in Campos. They are joint patrons, as the goigs state in the title but then not in the first verse. By the end of the song, the faithful are still only honouring their patron (singular), the glorious Saint Julian. Two patrons there are and have been, for "time immemorial", yet one of them has always had a secondary role.
The fiestas have themselves been known simply as Saint Julian, but not any longer. The town hall's announcement for this year's fiestas is clear enough - Saint Julian and Saint Basilissa - and on Thursday, by way of a novelty, there will be a grand party devoted to the "imaginary" Campos, which is being publicised with the slogan - "Where are you, Saint Julian and Saint Basilissa?" It might equally be "who are you?" in the case of Basilissa, given that she has for so long occupied an apparently subordinate position.
One is tempted to presume that the pursuit of gender equality has meant joint billing for Basilissa at long last. This said, and despite Thursday mass being for both saints, tomorrow's goigs are listed in Julian's name only, which wasn't the case back in 1862. Still, there does seem to have been some movement in the right direction and of recognition of the fact (?) that Julian founded a monastery, Basilissa a convent, and their together having established a hospital.
Goigs are sung at many a fiesta time for different saints, but they are very much more to the fore at this time of the year than at others. The Campos goigs are rather overshadowed because the Julian and Basilissa fiestas fall in the week before Sant Antoni, and the goigs for this saint are so central to the celebrations that in some parts of Majorca the Sant Antoni fiestas start this week with goigs rehearsals.
Nowhere goes in for this more than Manacor. On Friday, as tradition has it, they'll be gathering in Plaça Concordia for a good old sing-song. Lubricated with wine and sustained by a barbecue, this is the rehearsal for what is one of the grand occasions of the year's fiestas calendar in Majorca - the goigs of Sant Antoni Eve in the parish church.
Neighbouring Sant Llorenç also has a rehearsal, but it is Manacor which is best known the goigs and for celebrating the glory of a saint who overcame Lucifer. The rehearsals aren't really necessary as everyone seems to know the words. Song sheets are available for those who don't, but most do because - as with Julian (and Basilissa) - they've been singing the words for time immemorial.
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