José Antonio Satué, bishop of Teruel and Albarracín, invited believers to “overcome individualism, indifference and every man for himself” during his traditional intervention in the Plaza del Torico, on the occasion of the Corpus Christi festival. Satué insisted that “the festival of bread,” which celebrates the Eucharist on the Thursday after the Holy Trinity, “does not refer only to the bread that feeds us and satisfies our hunger,” but also “to the bread that feeds the fraternity.” and the emotional and effective solidarity with many people who suffer in their body or soul”, and the bread that puts an end to “the hunger for meaning and hope, which on some occasion has made us all feel demotivated and disillusioned, affected “because of the atmosphere of discouragement in which we live immersed.”
He did so surrounded by a hundred children who have taken their first communion over the past month, and who participated in the procession and the traditional act of throwing rose petals to the Main Custody of the Cathedral of Santa María de Mediavilla , where an hour before the mass celebrated by the Bishop himself had taken place. One of the masses that brings together the most faithful in the cathedral throughout the year, and which in fact forced numerous plastic chairs to be placed to accommodate all the people.
During that mass, Satué spoke especially to the children, as those who have taken communion during this year are the protagonists. In that sense, the bishop used didacticism to explain the concept of Corpus Christi, which he summarized in three central terms: body, bread and poverty. “Body understood as the meeting of different parts and members that form a whole; bread as the food that nourishes that body but also the spirit; and poverty because when we do good to someone in need, not only for bread to satisfy their hunger, but also for company, attention or friendship, we are blessed by God,” he explained.
After that homily, the procession began, from the Cathedral Square to the Torico, passing through the Marquesa, and then back to the Town Hall Square through Yagüe de Salas, accompanied as always by the Santa Cecilia de Teruel Music Band, which He offered marches such as Triunfal, Hosana, Nuestro Padre Jesús or the National Anthem of Spain.
Behind the communicant children, the Corpus Christi pedestal with the Main Custody was processed, a piece made in 1742 by the Córdoba silversmith Bernabé García de los Reyes, commissioned by the bishop of Teruel Francisco Pérez Prado, born in Aranda de Duero in 1678 and so rigorous that sometimes caused conflicts due to the prohibition via edict of events such as dances, bullfights or fireworks. The fact is that this monstrance, which he ordered to be set almost three centuries ago, is considered one of the cathedral treasures of Teruel as an example of the tradition of Cordoban silversmithing in Teruel.
The celebration of Corpus Christi also marked the return to complete normality after several years of different vicissitudes: last year the procession could not take place due to the abundant rain it discharged, and in 2022 it was celebrated under stifling heat and all the prominence was for Torico, who hours before the procession had fallen from his column when removing the ropes that held it precisely so that he could pass the guard. And in 2021 it had the particularity of resuming the tradition after a blank year, 2020, in which the Coronavirus Pandemic forced it to be cancelled.
