Santa Maria la Major: The coronation and the fiestas

In Inca in May 2017, there were two days of processions as well as a solemn mass to celebrate a fiftieth anniversary. This was for the canonical coronation of the Marian image in the Santa Maria la Major Church, Inca's main parish church. The celebrations also involved the official act of declaring a "twinning" arrangement between the church and the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, where the image of the Salus Populi Romani (Protectress of the Roman People) had received canonical coronation by Gregory XVI in 1838.

The coronation in 1967 attracted such interest that it had to be held at a football ground. The Nou Camp d'Inca was converted into an impromptu temple. There were rather more people than for the fiftieth anniversary - over 20,000 of them. It was noted at the time they had come from all over Majorca, many by bus and coach. Hard to imagine nowadays, but 52 years ago Majorca wasn't exactly "saturated" with private vehicles.

The 20,000-plus included a full delegation of dignitaries - Cardinal Aracadio Maria Larraona, the bishops of Majorca and Ibiza, the captain general of the Balearics, the civil governor, the president of the regional court, the president of the provincial deputation, the mayors of Inca and Palma, the colonel of the Guardia Civil, the head of the Franco regime's Movimiento in Majorca, and more.

Paul VI had given his blessing for the coronation the year before. To celebrate this, there was - as might have been anticipated - a bit of a fiesta. The image was carried to the Plaça Espanya on the final day of May, as the scheduled coronation was to be a year later; it was actually on the 28th.

What was it that was arousing all this excitement? There had been a church of Santa Maria la Major since the mid-thirteenth century. Not unusually it was built on the site of a mosque, and the parish of Santa Maria de Inca was therefore established. Only primitive, the original church was replaced by a grander affair the following century. The current church, built in a Majorcan baroque style rather than the gothic of the previous one, took almost two centuries to complete; work started on it in 1706.

The second church had housed various religious artefacts, notably a retable of Santa Maria de Inca by Joan Daurer, which dated from 1373, and the image of Santa Maria la Major, the creation of one Pere de Sant Joan in 1400. Pere de Sant Joan would seem to have been Majorcan. He was to be highly influential in bringing about changes to Catalan church architecture, and his first known contribution to this was at the Sant Miquel Church in Palma around 1396.

For his endeavours, he was receiving an annual pension of twelve pounds. At the same time as he was doing work in Palma, he was appointed master builder of the cathedral in Gerona. The study of his career doesn't point to any other significant church architecture in Majorca. He was otherwise involved in projects in Catalonia and Perpignan. By 1431, his earnings had shot up; he was receiving "43 wages" from the Barcelona Cathedral chapter for, among other things, ensuring that stone taken from a quarry was suitable for baptismal fountains. Amidst this hectic schedule, he had found time to sculpt the image of Santa Maria la Major, and it was this - more than five centuries later - which was creating the excitement.

The fiestas for Santa Maria la Major are this weekend. Considered to be the patron of Inca, Santa Maria is in reality only the patron of the parish. There are two other parishes - Crist Rei and Sant Domingo - and the patrons of Inca as such are the twin brother saints Abdon and Senen. Nevertheless, this weekend's fiestas have an important place in the annual Inca calendar. But the question arises as to why they are this weekend.

The coronation at the end of May might seem like a suitable time to have the fiestas, but by 1967 celebrations for Santa Maria had been established for centuries, and they weren't in May. After the original church was built, the fiestas were the fifteenth of August - the Assumption, which is when various places in Majorca have their summer fiestas.

At some point, however, they were moved to the second Sunday in November. It is thought that this happened in the seventeenth century, though it could well have been earlier. No one can be sure as to precisely when, as the parish records were destroyed by fire in 1672. Eleven years later, the November fiestas were being definitively recorded, and the only justification for the switch to November would seem to lie with the timing of the Inca fairs, and these fairs are linked to the feast of Saint Luke in October. The fourth fair, Dijous Bo, being on a Thursday was determined - it is believed - by the fact that it couldn't clash with the Sunday of Santa Maria la Major.

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