Embarkation of Our Lady Virgen del Carmen

Embarkation of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Virgen del Carmen)

This Marian devotion was spread by Pope Benedict XIII to the Universal Church in appreciation of a Religious Order, the Carmelites, who were deeply Marian and considered Our Lady of Mount Carmel as mother and sister. It has its origin to the south of the current Port of Haifa, in Palestine, where Mount Carmel rises, dominating the Mediterranean sea. During the time of the Crusades, around 1156, some pilgrims and soldiers decided to settle there and this is where the order takes its name, Carmel, which means "Garden". Patronage by the seafarers was late, in 1901, and in fact it was not until 1922 when the priest of the Peña de Francia proposed that the seafarers and fishermen move to Los Realejos saying, "why not bring Our Lady of Mount Carmel to Puerto de la Cruz?". The statue arrived in 1923 after a sea and land journey, but the seafarers continued visiting, and taking out, the Lady of Carmel in Realejos. The present and characteristic Lady of Mount Carmel was done in 1954 by sculptor Angel Acosta.