BROTHERHOOD OF SAN ISIDRO DE VILLAFÁFILA

XVII OR XVIII CENTURY AND APPEARED IN 1806

Taking into account the date of the eighteenth century image [1] and in 1770, reference is made to the brotherhood in the referral file of the Viscount of Valoria, mayor of Zamora, to the Count of Aranda of the state of the congregations, brotherhoods and brotherhoods that exist in the towns of its jurisdiction, Villafáfila (Zamora) (sheet VIII et seq.) [2] , this brotherhood is at least from the 18th century or it could already be from the 17th century and it disappeared as a brotherhood in 1806.

We know nothing about this brotherhood because there is no book of it. The obtained are by references from other parties.

The brotherhood of San Isidro labrador depended on the church of Santa María del Moral, the only church that survives of the nine that it once had.

Location

This brotherhood had a hermitage where the image was, which was the one dedicated to San Isidro, it presided over the altarpiece, it was its main altar until it was demolished in 1811.

The hermitage of San Isidro, which was located in the "bago" of the hill, since among the paths of the same, the "path of San Isidro" that disappeared with the land concentration of 1970, where was it, this disappeared path ? very close to the current Roncero path, parallel to the right between about 10 m or 20 m from the Roncero path, the hermitage would be at the end of the path, near or against the border of the San Martín del Valderaduey terminus.

Image of San Isidro Labrador

century XVIII.

Baroque style:

Measures: 0.50 m.

Unknown author.

Location: Inside the hermitage of San Isidro in the altarpiece that would surely preside over the hermitage, it would be its main altar, it was there until 1811 and it was moved to the church of Santa María del Moral until today.

Processional Image: It goes into procession on May 15, as the patron saint of farmers.

Description of the image of San Isidro Labrador [3]

The saint was canonized in 1622, during the reign of Felipe IV, his liturgy gave rise to an abundant iconography in the Castilian agricultural areas. Villafáfila always held religious and secular festivities in his honor. As patron saint, he is always carried in prayer when a drought or a plague or any other accident that endangers the harvest is suffered.

He has a head with long curly hair parted in the middle. His face has an equally curly beard, with open eyes and a contemplative look, with which one tends to represent the saint while the angels work for him, since he was a servant of the landowner Iván de Vargas.

She wears a short, loose tunic with vertical folds, adjusted by a belt, buttoned and open at the end. Their legs are covered by knee-length breeches or leggings and high-fitting, button-up leggings. His arms are in an open line, the left one down and the right the other way, with his hand holding a latticework (Baroque diagonal). On the right side of him he carries a yoke of oxen

The polychromy of the image is of bright carnations with dark flat colors and borders. Its conservation is good.

History

By oral tradition it was known that there was a hermitage on the line between Villafáfila and San Martín right on the same line and there were discussions to see who it belonged to and then they determined that for the side where the door will open because that was the hermitage and there would be for Villafáfila's side that in terms of oral tradition [4] .

D. Elías Rodríguez Rodríguez [5] considers that it was a town, that there would be a small village in that area that would have its church that would be the hermitage and would disappear like everyone else around the 14th century, but he has not proven it.

During the negotiations to buy Don Bernardino Pimentel the villa of Villafáfila 1542 at the price they put on him, he wants a reduction because he says that part of those rents corresponded to San Isidro:

"also tell him that Villafáfila does not rent two hundred and fifty ducats because the rest belongs to San Isidro" [6] .

With which I think it was a small separate term that was not integrated into the jurisdiction of Villafáfila, but I have no more data [7] .

By oral tradition they tell us that once those from the town of San Martín took the image of San Isidro from the hermitage for their town without the consent of those from Villafáfila and that those from Villafáfila went in search of San Martín (half beaten) returning to the hermitage [8] .

1770 a reference is made to the brotherhood of San Isidro in the referral file of the viscount of Valoria, mayor of Zamora, to the count of Aranda of the state of the congregations, brotherhoods and brotherhoods that exist in the towns of his jurisdiction, Villafáfila (Zamora) (sheet VIII et seq.).

An eighteenth-century felling that begins at the peak of the bishoprics and goes towards the term of Tapioles mentions the hermitage with its summit that was on the limit, that is, on the same line. It says verbatim

“Walking straight to the hermitage of Sn Isidro to the top of said hermitage next to a large oyo, it was renewed and raised the tenth wet” [9] .

Within the jurisdictional territory of Santa María del Moral there were two hermitages, Nuestra Señora de Villarigo and San Isidro, with two brotherhoods, which suffered the same fate in terms of time of disappearance.

This first led to the disappearance of the Brotherhood of San Isidro in 1806 with the sale of its properties and its hermitage demolished and dismantled in 1811 and some of the materials, or the amount of their sale, were used in the repair works. which were then taking place in the parish church. He went on to take the image of San Isidro and his altarpiece to the church of Santa María del Moral.

In the accounts of the factory book of the church of Santa María del Moral, 1805-1853, the following expenses are cited:

In the 1811 accounts:

“45 reales from 9 buttresses from the chapel of San Isidro, were exchanged for the sticks needed for the choir railings”, “36 reales from two beams from San Isidro itself” And among the expenses: “From the dismantling of the chapel of San Isidro 199 reais”. “to Apolinar del Río, for three days that he was busy removing bricks from the said chapel 12 reales” [10] .

And in the 1812 accounts this curious expense item:

"Two hundred reais that were invested in treats for the parishioners who on holidays went with their carts and oxen to bring spoils from the convent of Moreruela and the Chapel of San Isidro to adorn this church" [11] .

While the hermitage existed and inside it the image of San Isidro that was its owner and that of the brotherhood of San Isidro, which was approximately 7 km from the town, which would take an hour and a half on foot, or some would go up in carts, or stables, the people of Villafáfila on May 15, the feast day of San Isidro Labrador, patron saint of farmers, a Villa that mostly neighbors dedicated to agriculture, went to honor their patron from the town channeling the way of San Isidro, they went up to celebrate it with mass, procession and ask for the blessing for the fields, it was easily a pilgrimage-type celebration where they stayed there to eat, this celebration remained that way until 1811 when the hermitage disappeared, and the brotherhood disappeared.

There is a rod, one of them has the following effigy on its upper part, inside you can see San Isidro with his rod in the field, it is worked by some oxen carried by some angels, you can see they are making the furrow, around a figure closing the reason possibly comes from the brotherhood of San Isidro.

The hermitage of San Isidro is demolished in 1811 and both the image and the altarpiece are transferred to the church of Santa María del Moral, but not in the same location as the altarpiece and the image:

1811 the altarpiece of the Cristo de la Misericordia, located in the front of the nave of the Nascent or Gospel, (right side), 1st section, is removed and the one of the hermitage of San Isidro, which had been dismantled at that time, is put on:

“that the transfer of the same imported 30 reais and its placement, 170 reais and a half” [12] .

But in it the image of Christ is still maintained, this altarpiece would remain until 1904, when the Santa María del Moral church received altars from other churches, it was replaced by the Santa Lucia altarpiece from the church of San Pedro, but the Cristo de la Misericordia It is no longer located in it, the Nascent or Gospel nave is transferred (right side), 3rd section, and the image of San Antonio Abad, as we know it today, is located in this altarpiece. Surely the altarpiece of San Isidro was sold and the money destined for the expansion works of the church that were carried out in those years.

The image of San Isidro was surely placed from the beginning, as indicated in the accounts of 1847:

 “for a frame for the sale of San Isidro” [13] ,

In the Nascent or Epistle nave (right side), 1st section, which gives us reference that the image was close to the sale, on the front wall, between the altarpiece and the wall of the Nascent nave next to the window, it is later moved to the wall of the nascent nave to the left of the window as it has arrived in the present day.

The image goes to the Santa María del Moral church in 1811, although it despises the brotherhood, since then to the present day the festivity of San Isidro continues to be celebrated, mass is celebrated, a procession is celebrated and it goes out to the fields to give it its blessing, without knowing the time it is adopted as a local holiday.

Until many years ago this image came out, in its course through the streets of the Villa, in the "Triumphant Car". It consisted of a wheeled carriage, finished in its upper part in a truncated pyramid, which supported, by four columns, a canopy, under which the image was placed. This car has disappeared.

Where the 15th and 16th were celebrated, in addition to dances at night, until the 2000s, from then on the 16th is lost as the dance that ceased to be, and in 2016 it resumes again, the dance, with the celebration of the AS-C. Villataurina, which, with the bringing of bulls, once again animated the San Isidro festivities.

Author:

Jose Luis Dominguez Martinez.

Bibliography - Text:

Manuel de la Granja Alonso and Camilo Pérez Bragado:

Villafáfila: History and current situation of a Castilian-Leonese town and its parish churches. 1996. p. 453, 456, 461.

Manuel de la Granja Alonso:

The art of a Castilian-Leonese town, Villafáfila p. 32 and 88.

Elias Rodriguez Rodriguez:

Own data.

Referral file from the Viscount of Valoria, Mayor of Zamora, to the Count of Aranda of the state of the congregations, brotherhoods and brotherhoods that exist in the towns of his jurisdiction.

ES.28079.AHN//TIPS,7098,Exp.29

http://pares.mcu.es/ParesBusquedas20/catalogo/description/6846186

Jose Luis Dominguez Martinez:

Own data.

Photography:

Manuel de la Granja Alonso.

Elijah Rodriguez Rodriguez.

Referral file from the Viscount of Valoria, Mayor of Zamora, to the Count of Aranda of the state of the congregations, brotherhoods and brotherhoods that exist in the towns of his jurisdiction.

ES.28079.AHN//CONSEJOS,7098,Exp.29.

http://pares.mcu.es/ParesBusquedas20/catalogo/description/6846186

Autonomous Body National Geographic Information Center (Download Center)

0308 Villafáfila 1941

https://centrodedescargas.cnig.es/CentroDescargas/buscar.do?filtro.checkCoord=N&filtro.codFamilia=02307&filtro.numeroHoja=0308#

0340 Manganese of the Lampreana 1937   

https://centrodedescargas.cnig.es/CentroDescargas/buscar.do?filtro.checkCoord=N&filtro.codFamilia=02307&filtro.numeroHoja=0340#

Army Geographic Service:

0308-Villafafila.

0340 Manganese of the Lampreana.

Jose Luis Dominguez Martinez.

Transcription and montage:

Jose Luis Dominguez Martinez.

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