Fiesta El Carmen - July 16th

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Fiesta El Carmen - July 16th

The Virgin of Carmen is the patron saint and protector of fishermen and sailors - those who live on and from the sea. Little surprise then that her 'saints' day is celebrated vigorously throughout Ibiza and Formentera, where the sea is almost inevitably your distant horizon.

Most churches on the island contain a statue of 'Nuestra Se-ora de Carmen' as local worshippers have great faith in her benevolent aura, which is apparently most powerfully felt at the tiny hamlet of Es Cubells on the south coast.

However, this cult only arrived on Ibiza 150 years ago with a Carmelite friar exiled by the government of the day, who were none to keen on the clergy, or their influence over the population. The friar, Father Palau, was one of Barcelona's leading intellectuals and therefore a major dissident problem for the far-left progressive government. Ibiza seemed the perfect, inaccessible backwater for their problem.

(In fact Father Palau was only here for six years before he was absolved of any political wrongdoing and returned to Barcelona.)

Nonetheless he left an indelible mark on the island during his extended sabbatical. Clearly not seeking company he chose the tiny hamlet of Es Cubells to set up home, which at that time consisted of two houses and a few farmers' outbuildings.

In the absence of intellectual stimulation he retreated within himself and made nature his family. This passion regularly drew him to the uninhabited. mystical island of Es Vedra where he would meditate and fast for as long as a month at a time. Surrounded and inspired by nature and nothing else he chronicled his experiences and found sufficient inner peace to return to society and build a small hermitage overlooking the sea. This was dedicated to his beloved Virgin of Carmen and, despite the risk, he arranged for his old icon of the virgin to be smuggled out to the island for the altar of his shrine.

He then set about touring Ibiza and Formentera preaching her virtues in every house of God. His sermons generated such fervour that an icon of El Carmen appeared at almost every church on the Pitiusas.
However, hordes of worshippers still chose to brave the long, rocky road to Father Palau's little hermitage at Es Cubells to best worship the Virgin, or thank her for her benevolence. This they felt was where her power was strongest, in much the same way that many people feel about nearby Es Vedra.
Nowadays the current church of Es Cubells, with its magnificent view and undeniable ambience, stands on the spot originally occupied by Father Palau's original hermitage.

Emily Kaufman - Island Historian.