Chronicle of the Brotherhood of Sant Jordi – Party Program 2021
“When for the month of November, Rafael E. Belda Doménech came to the house to talk to me and told me that she had been chosen to be the person to replace him in his position..., many experiences began to come to my mind, memories and also many people… people to whom I have to thank what I feel and am today.
In first place, to my parents, to know we will transmit the faith for Jesus Christ and the devotion for Sant Jordi Mártir, not just with words, but with facts.
To my grandparents, dear people, which I will never forget, for with them I learned to pray and also to memorize and meditate some prayer. From the hands of the grandparents of Alfafara is my devotion to the Divine Savior and Our Lady of Light.
To the Sisters of Charity and Teachers of the col·read Ribera Foundation. What can I say that you don't know about "La Milagrosa"?
To my catechists of the 1st Communion, al Grup Scout Edelweiss, instructors and friends who shared our faith in Jesus...
To my Confirmation Catechist, Paquita Aznar Satorre, and that just over a year ago he passed in the house of God.
A D. Ricardo, as rector of our parish and also as a teacher in the 3rd year of BUP in the subject of religion, because thanks to the research work he sent us to do on the iconography of Saint George in our town, I knew how to love and value the material and devotional heritage of our patron.
Of course I have tons of other people to piss off, and that they have contributed a lot to my life, but I wanted to highlight the foundations of what I feel and am today.
I can only say, that I am very il·excited by the position I have to exercise and that I will do everything possible to promote piety and devotion to Sant Jordi, to organize the liturgical and religious acts of the Patronal Celebrations and to take care of and to guard the patrimony of the Brotherhood of Sant Jordi”.
These are the first words, with which I addressed the general assembly after being elected president of the Confraternity of Sant Jordi on 7 March of 2020.
During the months of November to March, I formed the board that I was going to preside over. I thought with women and men, with disparate qualities and thoughts, and also with two essential common denominators for me: the devotion to Patrón Sant Jordi and the love for festivals and, moreover, of it·enthusiasm and desire to work.
The first people I thought of for the positions of vice president, secretary and treasurer, they were Jordi Silvestre, Macarena Albero and María Belda respectively. We had the first meeting 8 from disembarkation to my house, to shape the rest of the members and share ideas, concerns and desires.
The next step was to contact them. I remember each and every one of their reactions when I proposed that they be part of the board of the Confraternity of Sant Jordi. Well off the phone at 8 morning or night, in person on the street or showing up at their homes in the dead of winter or even at their workplace. The hugs of the most effusive! And he shook hands under the image of a Saint George... and also that person who told me: "There are things in life that present themselves and you can't say "No" and this is one of them"... I can assure you that there is a notebook to write.
The 23 February 2020, just two months from St. George's Day, I called all the members of the future board of directors to a meeting so they could get to know each other and explain the purpose of the Brotherhood.
Over the following weeks, the conversations with Rafael E. Belda Doménech were increasingly frequent, since I was making myself aware of everything and clarifying doubts. I thank you for your patience, predisposition and attention towards my person, since there have been many phone calls and questions asked.
The 15 of March of 2020, the board had planned a meeting to organize the working groups for the Sant Jordi Festival, there was only a month left. There are dates that remain engraved and one of them is that 14 of March of 2020, "date on which the government decrees the State of Alarm". That day everything stopped, the next day we canceled·host the meeting. We postponed it, thinking that in a few days everything happened. During that time, we were meeting telematically and finally, and with all the security measures, we did it in person on 15 May 2020.
Days before St. George's Day, D. Ramón phoned me to inform me that at the Major Mass on St. George's day he would appoint the new board of the Confraternity. And so he did. Plus, left written in the golden book of the Brotherhood of Sant Jordi:
"... We proclaim to our brothers and sisters in faith Elena Vilanova as president ... and board during the next three years in this Parish of Santa Maria de la Misericordia de Banyeres de Mariola and I give confirmation of its board..."
The new board of the Confraternity of Sant Jordi was beginning to walk in a very special way, nothing had been the same before.
From home and through Intercomarcal or Facebook we had the opportunity to follow all the masses: that of the Transfer to the Hermitage of our Patron, that of St. George's Day, that of the Cemetery, those of the Octavari and finally, the Mass of the Transfer of the day 3 May. In this last celebration, I accompanied D. Ramón Micó Colomer and Rafael E. Belda Doménech.
Two months before, I would not have been able to imagine how the Sant Jordi Festival was going to be 2020. They were lived at home. I also missed people’s noise, music and color in the street. And yet my whole heart was clothed with festivity, as well as our balconies that shone with the balconies of the image of Sant Jordi, for more than a month.
The 5 May 2020 thirty years have passed since the reconstruction of the Ermita de Sant Jordi. With these lines, he thanks the family of Antonio Prats Monllor and Concepción Herrero Pérez for the service of custody and cleaning of the hermitage during this time. This provision is now in the hands of David Albero Prats, continuing the work that his grandfather started.
Two weeks later, the 19 May, Tourism declares the festivities of the Relic of Sant Jordi, festivals of Provincial Tourist Interest. The Confraternity of Sant Jordi welcomes this good news.
The first work as Board of the Brotherhood was the disinfection of the parish temple on the weekend of 23 i 24 May. We organized working groups to do this service in our community, just like the rest of the associations and confraternities.
After the call sent by Rafael E. Belda Doménech, the 24 In June I met for the first time with the Mayorals of the Confraternity of Sant Jordi at the Headquarters. From the first moment I felt your support and in return I thank you for the advice and suggestions, which I have paid attention to and put into practice.
Friday day 26 and on Saturday 27 June, and seeing that the situation with Covid-19 had improved a little, the board of Rafael E. Belda Doménech, organized the joint gathering of the cardboard "this should have been done on 3 i 4 d’abril”. A group of people from the new board came, which we split up among the various groups and thus teach each other the various routes on the street.
Maestro Antonio Lillo Pérez gives the Confraria de Sant Jordi the arranged sheet music and the digitization of the hymn to Sant Jordi and the Confraria de Sant Jordi publishes five bindings of the named hymn. The 26 June 2020, the acting president of La Confraria de Sant Jordi, Rafael E. Belda Doménech presents for the archives of the Party Committee, the “La Nova” Musical Group, the Banyeres de Mariola Musical Society, the Confraternity of Sant Jordi and a thank you to teacher Antonio Lillo Pérez for a copy of this binding, in a simple act in the hall of the Brotherhood of Sant Jordi.
The evening of 15 of July we met at the Headquarters of the Brotherhood, outgoing and incoming board presidents and principal positions, to realize the symbolic “Claus delivery”. From these lines, I thank each and every one of the people who have been part of the boards of directors that have preceded us. For your work and effort, since they have left us a legacy that is not only material that we must guard, maintain and give continuity. Another aspect, the fundamental basis of the Confraternity is the devotional, which we want to encourage and transmit among those around us and especially among the smallest.
After five months of waiting, the 24 of July the board will meet for the first time at the Social Headquarters carrying out the first meeting of the Board of the Confraternity of Sant Jordi. One of the most important items on the agenda was to inform the members of the working groups: Photography, Web and Social Networks, Sant Jordi float, Major Mass organization and protocol, Church assembly, Transfer of Sant Jordi-Image hermitage-andes Cambril, offers, Ermita Sant Jordi, cera, large image of St. George, Saint George Procession and Relic, Missa Cementeri, Pal-li, Monument a Sant Jordi, Inventories, Music Conference, Intendancy, Historical archive, Party Committee, Cardboard vehicle coordination, Lottery, Treasury, Secretary, Vice-presidency and Presidency. I also summoned D. Ramón Micó Colomer as priest of our parish. He was proposed to be our Councilor and we are waiting for the answer from the Archbishopric of Valencia.
Over the following weeks, the leaders of the working groups met with their predecessors to explain in detail the tasks to be carried out. At the same time, the documentation of the Board change was sent in order to update the data both to the Archdiocese of Valencia and to the Registry of Religious Entities of the Ministry of the Presidency, Relations with the Courts and Democratic Memory. We will also announce the appointment of the new Board of Directors, through a greeting to the Banyeres de Mariola Town Council, Party Committee, filaes, music bands, Coral Mariola and Group of Dolçaines and Tabals "El Braçal".
The 28 In August, the protocol and image groups of Sant Jordi cleaned the altar, both from the social headquarters of the Brotherhood, like from the altar. With cabbage·collaboration of the previous president Rafel E. Belda, we downloaded the image of Sant Jordi to familiarize ourselves with its mechanism.
The 9 May 2020, scheduled date for the Transfer of Sant Jordi from the church of Santa María to its Hermitage, followed by the fraternity dinner of all the previous meetings and with the imposition of badges it was reduced to the mass of the day 3 May. Due to the current situation, it was thought to hold a Eucharistic celebration on Sunday 30 of August and give it the relevance that corresponds to the act of imposition. Vam col·place on the altar a center in 37 red roses, one for each member of the Confraternity Board. We would send a greeting to all the boards that had preceded us, in which we indicated, apart from place and time, who told us the names of the people who were going to attend the celebration, since the temple at that time had a capacity of 75%. Groups were created for disinfection, temperature dam, accompaniment to the assigned place. But Saturday night 29, and after the statement released on social networks by the Banyeres de Mariola City Council reporting the increase in cases in our town, we will decide the year·lar this act, being adjourned without date. For this celebration, we were scheduled to be accompanied by a small number of musicians from the "Classic Chamber of the Banyeres de Mariola Musical Society". After the celebration they would delight us with the concert: "Musicians with Denomination of Origin". This was postponed for the 27 September 2020. To thank the Societat Musical de Banyeres de Mariola for the offer and interest in giving distinction to this act. Of course, that as soon as we can celebrate it we will count on his presence.
Wednesday 2 In September José Antonio Serrano visited us at the Social Headquarters, Intercomarcal television announcer, on the occasion of the Feast of the Relic of Sant Jordi. We showed the Relic of our patron saint with his reliquary. Then I moved to the Parc de Vil·the rosary, where Paco Navarro was waiting for me, company of Serrano, to talk about the celebration of the Relic.
On Saturday 5 September, eve of the feast of the Relic, a small group of the board of the Brotherhood will prepare the Script of Sant Jordi and the Relic to take it to the church and preside over all the Eucharistic celebrations of the weekend. Before leaving and with solemnity we sang the joys and had an intimate moment of veneration at the Relic of the Saint. Col·we located the script of Sant Jordi on the high altar under the canvas of Sant Gregori, we deposited the Relic in the tabernacle of the high altar. The decoration was limited to flowers on the altar table, to the pilasters of the same and 23 red roses on the altar of our Patron Saint.
The 6 September, them 7:15 h, silently in the streets, broken by the tolling of our parish bells, Macarena, María and I hung on the facade of the headquarters the maroon velvet balconette that the previous board made for the Sant Jordi festivities 2020 and that they could not premiere. Before 8:00 h, the Relic was col·located on the display of the high altar, like the day before.
Around the 10 in the morning, all the members of the board were going to the social headquarters of the Brotherhood. There, at the headquarters, we had prepared for each of us a hygienic mask designed by Javier Puig Miró, member of the board of directors and made by Creaciones LLopis, S.L. This shows on one side the image of Saint George of the transfer and on the other the Red Cross, symbol of the martyr, with the initials of the Saint superimposed. The protocol group received instructions on the steps to follow for entering the temple: take the temperature, write down the personal data and accompany the attendees to their places. Before leaving for the church, I delivered to Joaquin Albero and Vicente French, members of the board, the corresponding certificate for the acquisition of an image of Sant Jordi.
At the celebration, they accompanied us, civil authorities and parties, presidents, commissioners, captains and flag bearers of all ranks, mayors of Sant Jordi, party reporter, presidents of the music bands and faithful until capacity is reached. This was officiated by D. Mico Ramon Colomer, together with deacon Rodrigo Ferre Bodí. In the musical part only four voices of the Mariola Choir Ma Dolores Safe Beneyto, A hard tackle from Salvador Calero to Beneyto, Inmaculada Jordá Ferre i Nacho Alonso Garre i Francis Blanes Sempere a l’orgue.
For this occasion Don Ramón asked us for the pink chasuble and stole and for communion the Chalice kept at the Brotherhood Headquarters. Both donated by the relatives of Gregorio Molina Ribera.
The Eucharist was broadcast live by Intercomarcal and Ràdio Banyeres de Mariola. To thank the Banyeres de Mariola City Council for providing us with these means of communication to reach everyone.
Although we didn’t have the badges, we will enjoy the first act as a Board of the Brotherhood. As explained to us D. Ramón, the founders of the association when they started didn't have them either.
At the end of the Eucharist, the whole Board will take a picture in the church stands and then we will go to the social headquarters in Josep Sempere i Castelló, mayor of Banyeres de Mariola, D. Mico Ramon Colomer, vicar of the Parish of Santa María de Banyeres de Mariola and a small representation of the board of directors, to celebrate the signing of the Confraternity's golden book by the preacher. Once there I welcomed them and read the following:
“The Headquarters is the meeting point for the boards of directors, assemblies of the brothers and meetings with the elders. Workplace of the boards and where they are placed on the table: they·lusions, projects and also failures... where debate and consensus are created... La Seu, place of welcome and congratulations, on the board of directors rep, any rere any, and after the Major Mass of Sant Jordi and La Relíquia, to civil and religious authorities, to the mayors, to the presidents and to the captains and flag bearers of all the rows. This year a very different picture, compared to previous years, only a small representation of the Board of the Brotherhood. The Headquarters, place of gratitude and tradition, where the preacher is thanked for the celebration of the High Mass and invited to stamp his signature in the Golden Book of the Confraternity and thus leave a written record of his presence among us. Golden Book that turns twenty this year- five years, give him 23 d'April 1995, D. Manuel Soler Espí, rector much loved by the people of Banyeres de Mariola, I will open this book for the first time and leave a few words of gratitude and affection”.
I asked D. Ramón who will sign us in the gold book of the Brotherhood and who will read us his dedication and who will then do the same with the Sant Jordi festivities. To finish, we will present him with an engraving of the Sant Jordi Script, made by the local artist, Manuel Granados.
After the last celebration in the parish church, some members of the board of the Brotherhood of Sant Jordi will return to the Seu el Guió del Sant. Mr Ramon, after visiting a sick person, returned the Relic to the See.
The board of the Brotherhood of Sant Jordi, despite the limitations that mark us at the moment we are living, a pandemic, she is very active. The working groups so archival, such as web and social media, the protocol and the lottery, among others, continue their tasks.
With respect to cardboard, we plan to continue with this form of financing to be able to carry out future projects. At the same time we are convinced that it is an activity that creates bonds. We haven't agreed on a project yet, since we are in the phase of contributing ideas and il·lusionar us. On one occasion, while we were folding calendars, I asked the question and a member of the board answered me: “Elena, the imposition of badges. This is my project".
This year, the image chosen for participation in the Christmas draw, it is one of Sant Jordi and the dragon with Banyeres de Mariola in the background. The technique used is that of the "socarrat", d’origen medieval, typical of Valencian pottery. This was given by brother M.B.S. Thank you from here to the shops col·workers, to the advertisers who help us to continue spreading the iconography of our Patrón Sant Jordi and to all the people who unconditionally participate year after year with the Confraría de Sant Jordi by buying participations and tithes.
The calendar edited for 2021, has been sponsored by the local company Albero Forte Composite, S.L. An icon from Thessalonica has been used (Greece) of Sant Jordi on horseback fighting with the dragon, ceded by the neighbor of our village R.B.B.. In blue are the days designated for the Brotherhood of Sant Jordi. The days of monthly masses for the deceased of the Confraternity have been added, that pass of the day 23, on the fourth Saturday.
The next one 21 d'April 2021 we will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the blessing of the Saints Jordiets that D. Gregorio Molina Ribera gave the existing families the year 1946. The 25 of December, Nadal's day, Don Ramón Micó Colomer was dressed in the white chasuble of Sant Jordi to officiate the Eucharistic celebration of the Major Mass.
Sunday night 3 January 2021, we lamented the loss of Don Manuel Soler Espí, Canon of the Cathedral of Valencia. Much loved in Banyeres de Mariola and especially in the Brotherhood of Sant Jordi, since he was rector at the Parish of Santa Maria for eight years and councilor of the Brotherhood from 1967 Until 1974. On several occasions he has been invited to preside over the Eucharist of Sant Jordi and the Relic. In the gold book of the Brotherhood we have forever words of gratitude and love for the people of Banyeres and especially their devotion to Sant Jordi. In the cel that rest.
After this year mixed with anguish, silencis, unexpected dismissals and lack of hugs, we wish to enjoy our festivities again in the hope of being able to organize the next festivities in honor of Sant Jordi.
Vítol to our Patron Saint George.
