In 1490, Don Luís de Acuña Herrera, a knight who accompanied King Ferdinand, the Catholic, decided to build the church called Iglesia de la Merced where previously a Mozarabic chapel had stood in the Churra suburb of Baza. The building work having started, one of the workmen, Juan Pedernal, from Guadix, was chipping away at some plaster work during the demolition when he was surprised to hear coming from inside the cavity a soft and woeful voice which seemed to come from the depths of the earth and which said "HAVE MERCY!". He had found a sculpture of the Virgin, which from then on was given the name of Our Lady of Mercy, in allusion to the expression. The discovery of the workman from Guadix gave rise to serious turmoil among the workmen who competed for ownership of the icon, to the extent that the authorities of the two towns became involved requiring the intervention of the courts of those times, which resolved that the image was the property and should be in the possession of Baza, and the right to hold annual religious festivities on 8 September, festivity of Our Lady of Mercy, be given to the Chapter of Guadix. It was agreed that if a commissioner from the town of Guadix were able to enter Baza and reach the church of Mercy without stain, he could recover the Virgin for Guadix. Thus, the townspeople of Guadix came in pilgrimage to hold the religious festivities which was within their right to do. The retinue went to Baza accompanied by a buffoon, a small person and usually plain, whose crucial mission was to entertain his protectors with jokes and nonsense. It is thought that this buffoon was the precursor of the present day "Cascamorras", and it stands to reason that the servant entrusted with the rescue should be irritated by the jokes and laughter that children who came along to stain him and from whose mockery he should try to defend himself by wielding inflated bladders tied to a stick. Consequently the tradition of this festivity is based on that famous character, Juan Perdernal (the first Cascamorras), accompanied by a drummer and a retinue, emulating the first years of its celebration, who reaches Guadix from Baza to carry off the image of Our Lady of Mercy. If he manages to arrive clean, that is, without being covered in paint, at the Convent of Mercy, he can carry out his objective. In their attempt, the inhabitants of Baza prevent him by accompanying him on his journey from the road into the town to the church of the Our Lady of Mercy and smearing him with brilliant jet black paint, formerly it was done with red ochre, laundry blue, etc . "Cascamorras" will return to Guadix without the prized image so the people of Guadix, in return for his failure will paint him and stain him too using emulsion paints, red ochre, etc... Having become an important tourist attraction, in Baza it is celebrated every year on 6 September at 6.00 p.m., being the start of the Festivities and Fair in honour of Our Lady of Mercy, which are held between the 6 and 15 September each year and in Guadix on 9th of that month. On 8 September, in the church of the Our Lady of Mercy a solemn religious service in honour of the Holy Mother is held and in the afternoon Our Lady of Mercy is carried through the main streets in solemn procession.
Posted on: Sun, 08 Sep 2013 12:16:30 +0000
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