Our colleague and announcer of Radio Lanzarote, Francisco José Navarro, wants to make a clarification to the readers of La Voz de Lanzarote about the festivity of the patron saint of the island, San Marcial de Rubicón.
And, according to Francisco José Navarro, next July 7 is not celebrated the day of San Marcial, but the creation, in his honor, of the first parish in Lanzarote. "According to the writings of the Holy Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Church, the feast of the saints is commemorated from the day of their death," says Francisco José Navarro, who points out that San Marcial died on June 30, 73 AD and, therefore, has nothing to do with July 7.
To clarify this doubt to the readers, Francisco José Navarro has used the book "The Church of San Marcial de Rubicón", published by the City Council of Yaiza on the occasion of the commemoration of the VI Centenary of the Diocese Rubicense, as well as the first city of Rubicón, reproducing part of this text:
Life of San Marcial
"San Marcial, Hebrew by birth and affiliated to the tribe of Benjamin, was born in Rama, city of Palestine, being a close relative of the protomartyr San Esteban and a distant relative of the Apostle San Pedro. His parents used to take him to the preachings of the Divine Savior and he was the young man who by chance had five loaves and two fish, which were converted into food for five thousand people.
Disciple of Christ, he was later a witness of his Ascension being with the Apostles on the day of San Pentecostés. He received baptism from the hands of San Pedro, who, enamored of his good qualities, took him with him to evangelize Asia, retained him in Antioch, brought him as a companion to Rome, consecrated him Bishop and at the head of several priests sent him to the Gauls as a missionary, choosing for his residence the city of Limoges and conquering in the whole region many infidels with the ardor of his word and with his prodigious miracles.
When one of the priests he brought with him died, he returned to Rome, where San Pedro gave him a Pastoral Staff that, putting it back in Limoges in the tomb of the said priest, restored his life. And according to several authors, in memory of having given San Pedro his Staff to San Marcial, the Roman pontiffs do not use Staff. Full of merits, he died on June 30 of the year 73 of the Christian era.
First parish plan of Lanzarote
"The first time that there is talk of Parish for the Canary Islands, although in an indirect way, is in the Bull of Benedict XIII, issued in Avignon on the XIV Kalendos of March (February 18, 1403). In it, license is granted to the missionaries that Juan de Béthencourt takes with him to the islands, so that they can build churches with bell towers and baptismal font, cemeteries and administer all the Sacraments not exclusive to the Bishops.
A year later it is the same Benedict XIII who with his Bull of July 7, 1404, when making the Church of the Castle of San Marcial de Rubicón a Cathedral and Bishopric, creates in Lanzarote the first parish.
Every July 7 a mass of thanksgiving is celebrated commemorating the creation of the first Parish of Lanzarote in honor of San Marcial de Rubicón".
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