I’m going to ask my parish priest if we can put a skirt on Jesus.
No, it’s not heresy.
This is actually what they do in Tenerife.
Which if you’re a regular visitor to this blog you’ll know is where I spent a few days last week.
The church in question is San Cristóbal de La Laguna or Catedral de Nuestra Señora de los Remedios.
Of course, the mantra for this column and its weekend sister column This Sporting Weekend is ‘where you play and pray.’
And I try to pop my head around as many chapel, synagogue or mosque doors as I can on my travels.
But never in my time have I seen Jesus on the cross with what on first look appeared to be a tutu.
I’m indebted here to my new friend Lizzie for doing the research on this one for me.
Lizzie flags up the Christ in a skirt (and that’s our shorthand) from Lima in Peru.
The story goes that this is one of many paintings of a sculpted crucifix that hangs in Cuzco’s cathedral.
The statue was believed to have brought the great earthquake of 1650 to an end.
Save us, O Lord
After the quake, painted copies of the Crucifix were made.
But the only explanation that I can get on why the Tenerife church was on the same wavelength was that they had similar in Burgos on the Camino.
I’m guessing that it is because they wanted some divine protection from one of the hundred or so volcanoes on the island.
I also see that he’s got the old guna (that’s Irish for a dress, btw) on in Scicli in a gorge in the Val di Noto in Sicily.
And they are an island with a rather big volcano at its heart.
For more on Tenerife, and there’s a full review coming, read https://jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2019/09/02/tenerife-and-scotland-wave-the-same-flag/ https://jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2019/09/03/vegging-out-in-tenerife/ https://jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2019/09/04/a-walk-in-the-park-tenerife/ https://jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2019/09/05/hungry-and-thursday-wrinkly-potatoes/ https://jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2019/09/05/jocktails-tenerife-coffee-liqueurs/
And here are the websites you need… http://www.webtenerife.com http://www.webtenerife.co.uk http://www.aerlingus.com.
Now I’m going… straight to Hell!
