La Rioja began the Novena in honor of Saint Nicholas of Bari
The Riojan community participated on Thursday in the traditional “descent” of the image of Saint Nicholas in the local cathedral, to begin this Friday the preparatory novena for the winter festival in honor of the patron saint of the diocese and the province of La Rioja.
The celebration is part of the ninetieth anniversary of the creation of the diocese, and its motto is “90 years of faith, hope and mission.”
Once the first day of the novena is over, the diocesan Music Ministry will officially present the song representing the 90 years since its creation on Friday.
The name of the musical work is: Viva La Rioja and its Church. The authors are two young people from the diocese: the composition of the lyrics was in charge of Leonel Maldonado Palazzi, from the Nuestra Señora del Rosario parish (Ulapes), and the music was composed by José Augusto Agüero, from the El Salvador parish (Chamical ).
Both the prayer of the novena and the central festival in honor of San Nicolás, scheduled for Sunday, July 7, will take place in the Rioja cathedral.
That Sunday, the entire Diocese will make a pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of Saint Nicholas to celebrate the gift of holiness of the patron, Saint Nicholas of Bari, and the grace of being the People of God on the 90th anniversary of the creation of the Diocese.
90 Years of the Diocese
It was created on April 20, 1934 by Pope Pius XI. In this way, the entire province was entrusted to the pastoral care of a Bishop and a new stage began in the announcement of the Kingdom in our land of Rioja.
Our Bishops were: Bishop Froilan Fereira Reinafé, Bishop Horacio Gómez Dávila, Blessed Bishop Enrique Angelelli, Bishop Bernardo Witte OMI, Bishop Fabriciano Sigampa, Bishop Roberto Rodríguez, Bishop Marcelo Colombo, Bishop Dante Braida.
Novena times
The daily novena and mass will have morning and evening times, according to this scheme:
At 7.30, prayer of the Rosary
At 8, mass and novena
At 9, pray the Rosary
At 9.30, mass and novena
At 10.30, prayer of the Rosary
At 11, mass and novena.
At 5 p.m., pray the Rosary
At 5:30 p.m., mass and novena
At 7:30 p.m., pray the Rosary
At 8pm, mass and novena.
The masses celebrated at 9:30, 11, and 17:30 will have the participation of schools and institutions from the provincial capital.
