The Jubilee of Forty Hours consists in the public exhibition of the
consecrated host during the whole day, enclosed in a _custodia_, which
has already been described. It lasts three days, and these are alternate
in all the churches of great cities; so that there is not a day in the
whole year, except the Thursday and Friday in the Holy Week, on which the
host does not receive this kind of worship. At night-fall the _custodia_
is covered with a curtain, which is generally made of rich gold and
silver lace. This act, at which an officiating priest presides, and
during which hymns are chanted and accompanied by music, usually attracts
a great concourse of the devout. In the mornings the eucharist is
uncovered with the same ceremonies.
The Pilgrimages or _romerias_ are devout expeditions made to certain
celebrated sanctuaries on the days of the saints to which they are
dedicated. Those sanctuaries are generally situated out of the towns.
Some of them are convents, others mere chapels; but in both one case and
the other, large sums of money are collected on those occasions. In
ancient times, in Spain, as also in all other Roman Catholic countries,
these pilgrimages were acts of sincere devotion, which imposed the
necessity of confession and communion. The devout passed all their time
in the church,—in the morning hearing mass, in the evening reciting
prayers dictated to them by a priest from the pulpit. On these occasions
it was usual for enemies to be reconciled, confessing their most grievous
sins, and celebrating other acts of true repentance and piety. But in
modern times these usages have been much relaxed; the greater part of
those who attend such pilgrimages give up the entire day to dinners,
dancing, and other amusements. Many serious disorders have generally
resulted from such customs, and the authorities have been under the
necessity of suppressing them. In olden times the two sanctuaries of
Santiago in Galicia, and of the Virgin del Pilar in Zaragoza, drew
together immense crowds of devotees, not only of the Peninsula and other
Spanish dominions, but from all parts of Europe; and the offerings which
were made to the images in those temples, in money, and in jewels, and
other precious things, amounted in value to sums which would, if named,
be considered fabulous. In the present day, however, that zeal has
considerably cooled, although the practice of attributing to those
images, and others called _Milagrosas_, the cure of all human disorders,
is not exploded, but still prevails. Whenever cases occur in which an
individual believes that he has been restored to health by means of the
_Milagro_, it is customary for him to deposit, in the chapel of the image
he venerates, a small model or representation of that member or part of
the body restored to health by the prodigy. These objects in great
abundance adorn the walls of such edifices, where may be seen innumerable
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