Las Fiestas Patronales

Every year thousands of pilgrims descend on Banica from all over the country: Santo Domingo, San Juan de la Maguana, Comendador, Elias Pina, Pedro Santana...all over! They come to pay their respects to St Francis of Assisi on his feast day, October 4th. "Patronales" time begins on the 24th of May with the feast of Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes (Our Lady of Mercy). This is also when they begin the novena to St Francis. We have a procession from the church with the statue of St Francis up to the cave (about a mile and a half away). The people of Pedro Santana process with St Joseph, their patron saint, to meet us and we walk the last stretch together. You can see above a snapshot of the procession with both saints, the priests and people of both parishes. The school in Los Memisos closed the on the 25th for patronales (very early!) and by the 30th all the schools were out for the fiestas. Each night the 3rd order Franciscans offer prayers and the novena in honor of St Francis as the "fiesta" organizers set up a huge stage in the middle of the street with a truck load of speakers. From the 2nd to the 4th we had live bands - all for free. Joe Veras, specializing in Bachata was on Friday. On Saturday we had Omega, which is a very popular merengue band here. The streets were PACKED so much that we could barely move! Last night we had Felix D'Olio, my personal favorite, who sings mostly bachata but also some baladas. We took advantage of the fiesta to have a little fun ourselves. Maureen, Jimena and I got all dressed up and we had a great time!
On the day of the 4th the pilgrims (and our two most enthusiastic missionaries, Isaac and Brendan) hike up for Mass at the cave at 7am (1.5 miles plus a climb up) with the bishop of our diocese here. Pilgrims go up to the cave and often spread ashes and dirt on their faces or hands. You'll see a picture of that above as well. After the Mass at the cave there is a final Mass with the bishop again at the church followed by another short procession with St Francis.
Today everything is on its way back to normal, but first there was the counting to get out of the way. The pilgrims donated in total over $4000 to our parish during these days. That's a lot of coins!
In short, Patronales is a blessing and a cross. Days and nights of continual activity with little rest and little sleep. Loud music playing to all hours in the streets and crowds and crowds at church and at the concerts. Jimena and I live on the same street where they set up the stage and the truck of speakers. Motorcycles and cars racing dangerously down our little town's overloaded streets is a big safety problem. There is also the disappointment and sometimes anger in seeing a misguided devotion to St Francis that places him above God, and a lack of respect for the Eucharist. the Mass and the sanctuary. But there is real faith here and many of the pilgrims and baniqueros alike are richly blessed through St Francis' intercession. In fact, I trust that St Francis, in his humility, will truly lead those faithful pilgrims to Christ rather than take the inordinate devotion they try to give him for himself. It's a great big party, everyone has family in town and there is much joy. I myself enjoyed the music and festivities and admiring what faith I did witness. Music, piety and partying mix here in a way we never experience in the States.

St Francis, pray for us!