The brotherhood of Our Lady of Villaviciosa completes the sculptural ensemble of the processional base of the Virgin with two new images. In baked and polychrome terracotta, the Archangels San Gabriel and San Rafael are now a reality, the work of the Cordovan image maker Manuel Luque Bonillo.
They have a height of 60 centimeters and they will be able to be admired in the streets during the procession on Sunday, September 15. The parish priest of San Lorenzo, Rafael Rabasco, blessed the archangels during the main solemn ceremony, celebrated in San Lorenzo on September 8 in honor of the patron saint of nursing.
Remember the brotherhood that, already in 1995, this image maker sculpted the images of Hernando and the Portuguese knight, who appear in the legend, and who until now were at the forefront of the sculptural group of the processional pedestal.
Manuel Luque Bonillo conceived the design of the base, produced by the Orfebrería Andaluza workshop in Seville in 1996.
The image of the Archangel Saint Gabriel
The Archangel Saint Gabriel represents Mary’s “Let it be done to me” symbol and motto of the Primitive Brotherhood of Our Lady of Villaviciosa, accepting the will of God. It was he who was sent for the moment of the Annunciation.
Meanwhile, Archangel Saint Raphael is depicted as Guardian of Cordoba, of which the Virgin of Villaviciosa is the historical patron saint and with which it has maintained a strong religious bond for many centuries.
The brotherhood is now working new composition to place these four images next to the pedestal in view of Sunday, as the older brother, Martín Pedregosa, explained to ABC. Regarding the additions, he assures that they are “wonderful, very beautiful.”
There is nothing more to face in the march, since it already includes the stick and the skirt in one piece.
