Pilgrimage to Sant Marçal

This pilgrimage, one of the most deeply rooted in Mallorca, is organized on the occasion of the patron saint festivities of Marratxí, dedicated to Sant Marçal, “advocate of all evil”.

Participants from Marratxí and Santa Maria usually do the path on foot. But pilgrims from Caimari, Moscari, Selva and Biniamar also attend, who go by bus. The tradition was to make the pilgrimage in carts in the afternoon of the previous day and remain in the vicinity of the temple until the next day to attend the high mass.

Solemn mass at eleven o’clock in the morning in the church of Sant Marçal, with the presence of the authorities; Hydrangeas adorn the main altar. Dance of the Offering in the temple and veneration of the relic of the patron saint. Then, on the esplanade, dance of the “siurells giants” of Marratxí to the sound of the xeremies. There is a fair, in which it is traditional to buy a siurell (Marratxí is a land of ceramics) and an alfabeguera. The siurells give colour (green, white and red) to the festival, while the basil trees spread their delicate perfume

The church of Sant Marçal, near Sa Cabaneta, is the most important church in the municipality of Marratxí, which does not have a main urban centre but several villages, housing estates and industrial estates. The current temple was built from 1699 on the estate of Son Verí and on top of an earlier church from the thirteenth century, dedicated to Santa Maria. Legend has it that the image of Sant Marçal was found in this same place, in the garrigue.

The immediate surroundings of the church of Sant Marçal remain made up of cereal fields and pine forests, despite the intense urbanization that most of the municipality has experienced over the last decades.

Invocation: “Glorious Sant Marçal, free us from all evil”. A popular gloss refers to the isolation of the place in the past: “The rector of Sant Marçal is in a garrigue and cannot eat any figs because he does not have a fig tree”.