IMAGE OF IGNACIO DE ACEVEDO
In 1946, coinciding with the Fiestas de San Miguel, Patron Saint of La Palma, the island press announced: "Discovery of a tombstone in the house where the 40 Martyrs of Tazacorte stayed." Marble plate that today is conserved in the ancestral nucleus of the old large houses of El Charco, also known as "the Hacienda below".
Officially begins by the City Council, clergy and neighbors to claim the name of Martyrs of Tazacorte. The people's response became effective in subsequent years with the acquisition and donation of an image of Blessed Ignacio de Acevedo.
Only two wood carvings are known to be venerated in the palm temples. One of recent invoice in the hermitage of Nuestra Señora de Fátima in Retamar, Los Llanos de Aridane and the one that crosses in a procession the streets of Tazacorte every July 15. Let us remember that in 1742 Benedict XIV solemnly recognized martyrdom and they were beatified by Pius IX on May 11, 1854.
The carved wooden image of Ignacio de Acevedo from the parish of Tazacorte is the first to be worshiped on La Palma, today it deservedly occupies a niche in the main altarpiece of San Miguel. We know that it was enthroned in 1949, in what is now Villa and Puerto, coinciding with the volcanic eruption of San Juan and during the festivities that "were made to the Blessed Martyrs as a request, requesting the extinction of the volcanic eruption." Because the image had not arrived on the dates of the holiday, July 15, the blessing and enthronement was postponed to July 24. The carving, we do not know the specific origin of the workshops although we suppose it to be from a peninsular invoice, was donated by the sisters Orfelina and Ana Leal Rodríguez and their godparents Pedro and Emilia Leal Martín, nephews of the former.
According to press references "The blessing took place in the donors' house (it must have responded to some special circumstances). The procession of the venerated image to the temple was organized immediately, accompanied by the Music Band and many faithful. After the procession, the Holy Mass, in which the Parish Choir, masterfully interpreted the mass for two voices of Perossi, conducted by the music teacher Ramón Perera ". At least since March 1949, the Gran Canaria native Juan Rodríguez Cárdenas has been the pastor and it was this priest who blessed and presided over the first procession of the image of Ignacio de Acevedo from San Boróndon to the church.
According to the testimony of Pedro Leal Martín, godfather of the image, his aunts, Orfelina and Ana, addressed by letter to the former chaplain and then pastor of Tazacorte Agustín Fernández de la Guerra, at that time residing in Cuba, so that they they will guide their desire to make a donation to the parish. It was this remembered priest who told them that an image of Blessed Ignacio de Acevedo was necessary. Today the Leal family and their descendants continue to participate in the worship and devotion to the Blessed Martyrs of Tazacorte.
A year earlier, in 1948, there is evidence of the festivity and the efforts to acquire an image of Father Acevedo, who "in the near future will be blessed and enthroned on an altar or, if possible, a chapel that is still to be erected, but which it will be a reality as long as there are enough donations. " This chapel was never built.
The news continues saying that for the fundraising "The Priest of Tazacorte has opened a subscription in which there are places as many people from outside the town want to cooperate." Few dates before the festival, specifically on June 28, the titular parish priest of San Miguel Julián Marco Requena died at 73 years of age. Given his prolonged illness, he was exercising, provisionally, the priesthood of Santiago Hernández Rodríguez. We think that possibly it was one of these two priests who took the initiative to raise funds to acquire the image of Ignacio de Acevedo. The Valencian Julián Marco Requena was assigned to the parish of San Miguel in 1928, previously he had exercised the priesthood in Güimar and Garachico and Santiago Hernández subsequently served as parish priest of Los Llanos de Aridane.
We do not know the final result of the public subscription to the 1949 news, already mentioned, of the donation of the image by Orfelina and Ana Leal Rodríguez.
In the 1948 festive program (Diario de Avisos, July 15, 1948), in a note in the "Island News" section, the correspondent published the article titled: The next fiesta in honor of the "Martyrs of Tazacorte". In our opinion, the correspondent-journalist quotes the title before the vindication of which we have already spoken.
He points out that the old painting of the Blessed Martyrs would appear in the procession. The interesting review says verbatim: "This year's festival will consist of the solemn religious function in the morning, musical concerts, the battle of flowers and the procession of the old painting with the aforementioned relics, which will go out to meet the image of Saint Peter who from last Sunday he has been receiving a fervent cult in the Puerto neighbourhood. " Remember that San Pedro, of ancient roots and annual celebrations in Tazacorte, he was worshiped for being the Patron Saint of Fishermen and hence his "descent" to the coastal neighbourhood.
One more year we find ourselves remembering the dates of the stay and violent death of the Blessed Martyrs of Tazacorte. Let us remember, as the ecclesiastical authority ordered at the end of the 19th century, "that the inhabitants of the island of La Palma all hurry to go to Pilgrimage to Tazacorte the day the church celebrates the feast of those Holy Martyrs"
