Without
being a true passion Paso, the Samaritana is, nevertheless, one of the favorite
processional groups in the Spanish Levante and specifically in the Murcian
region. In Cieza we have attested its presence, although without its own
brotherhood, since the last decades of the 19th century (thus in the chronicle
of Holy Week of 1893 in El Orden: "... It continued to be beautifully
decorated by the Lady of D. Mariano Marín- Blázquez the passage of the
Samaritan, who wore precious bouquets of misshapen flowers, rich jewelry and a
profusion of groups of bombs with lights on"), having been able to reach
Cieza even earlier, according to the commission book of the Murcian image maker
Joaquín Eusebio Baglietto , in which there is a restoration of the Images
carried out by said sculptor in the year 1880: "For the restoration of
Jesus and the Samaritan woman from the town of Cieza ordered by D. Pedro
Martínez bicario of said town and brought by them 600 reales delivered on
December 31, 1880.”
The
first sculptural group, whose two Images were clothed and had beautiful natural
hair, was probably due to the gouge by Sánchez Araciel, who would also have
designed the throne, which was built by Master Cañamón and gilded by Pedro
Valchs. Already in the 20th century, the Paso appears linked to the family of
D. José Parreño Benito and at that time it was customary that in the
processions in which he participated (General Procession, then Holy Thursday
night, and Procession of the Penitent, Good Friday in the morning) before him
paraded a group of girls dressed as the Samaritan woman.
El
Paso, which was guarded during the year in the Hermitage of the Holy Christ of
Consuelo, participated in the traditional "Bringing of the Saints"
from said hermitage, an occasion for which its Waitresses collected the hair of
the Image of the Samaritan woman with a pink gauze to prevent it from being
covered by dust from the street, as can be seen in some preserved graphic documents.
Like
so many others, El Paso was destroyed during the Civil War. The luxurious
clothing, which by chance of fate had survived the war, served so that, once it
was over, the local sculptor Manuel Juan Carrillo Marco had the exact
measurements with which to make a faithful replica of the disappeared group and
its corresponding throne by Commissioned by D. José Giménez Ávila and D. José
Aroca Martínez, who would parade in our Processions again until 1970. Tradition
has it that, looking for water for irrigation in the area of "El
Torvedal", these two ciezanos made the promise to carry out said Pass if
they found water less than twenty meters away, as they did; in fact, the well
that gave them water is still called today “Pozo de la Samaritana” and inside
it houses a miniature replica of the Pass.
In
1947 and commissioned by D. Francisco Ibáñez Semitiel, the Sculptor Carrillo
himself made a new Image of the Lord, which would parade in place of the other
between 1947 and 1951.
Being
as it was the only Step that did not have its own Brotherhood, in the year 1953
and chaired by D. Enrique Abellán Semitiel it was constituted, its statutes
being approved a year later; and in 1962 the traditional red tunics with white
bands were replaced by the current ones of lemon yellow, a color that had been
imposed from the beginning in luxury tunics.
In
1970, the images of the master Carrillo were replaced by others carved in wood
by Mr. José Luis Planes, son of the famous Murcian sculptor José Planes, very
far removed in style from the Salzille canons, and which were recently restored
(year 2000) by Javier Bernal Casanova. The primitive throne was too small for
Images larger than the previous ones, which led to the fact that in 1980 the
Brotherhood commissioned the construction of a new one, baroque in its
conception, carved in wood and gilded by Juan Solano, sculptor of Malaga origin
but settled in Cieza since 1946. The group will be completed in 2006 with a
metal bell holder, but simulating one of the carvings of the throne, in the
workshop of the ciezano goldsmith Francisco Penalva.
The
blue velvet banner embroidered in fine gold and precious stones in the
workshops of the consecrated Cartagena embroiderer Consuelo Escámez, was
incorporated into the procession of the Brotherhood in 1972 – its pole would be
replaced in 2006 by a new one made of embossed metal with a bath of silver in
the Ciudad Real workshops of Orovio de la Torre, as two years later would be
the one for the script also in the same workshop and with identical
characteristics- and six years later, in 1978, the Brotherhood formed its own
Band of bugles and drums.
In
1990, under the presidency of D. José Motos Marín, the Brotherhood acquires its
second Step, The Disciples of Emmaus, for the Procession of the Risen Christ on
the morning of Easter Sunday; the images of the same are the work of the
Murcian sculptor García Mengual and parade on what had been the throne of La
Samaritana until 1980, a throne that will be restored by the local artist
Bonifacio Pérez Ballesteros in 2002. While for the Procession of the Holy
Burial In 1994, the Brotherhood acquired a third Paso, José de Arimathea, made
up of a group of four Images carved in wood by the sculptor Francisco Ortega
from La Mancha, who a year later will renovate the Images (the last
intervention on them was carried out by the restorer Javier Bernal Casanova)
and will also hold the throne.
Under
the mandate of D. Francisco Morcillo Vázquez, elected President after Holy Week
in 1994, the Brotherhood acquired in 1998 for its Tercio de Nazarenes new
staffs made in the workshops of the ciezano goldsmith Francisco Penalva.
Since
the year 2000, after the unfortunate loss of Mr. Francisco Morcillo Vázquez,
his son, Mr. Francisco Morcillo Gil, has replaced him at the head of the
Brotherhood. Under his mandate, the Brotherhood renewed the andero costume that
same year, recovering the traditional “muco” cap and replacing the old sashes
with cingules; A year later, he acquired for his children's Tercio a replica of
the Images of his titular Paso, smaller, made by the Moratallero sculptor D.
Domingo Blázquez Carrasco and arranged on a throne by José Penalva Morcillo
revamped by Bonifacio Pérez Ballesteros; and in 2006 he premiered some new
Tercio Lanterns made of embossed and silver-plated metal by the famous Orovio
de la Torre de Ciudad Real goldsmith workshop, where that same year new
gold-plated powers were also acquired for the Image of the Lord of the La
Samaritan Pass.
Finally,
in 2002, the Brotherhood requested the award of Paso La Lanzada, whose images
will be executed in wood and polychrome by the Murcian sculptor José Antonio
Hernández Navarro and will be placed on a throne carved in wood and gilded by
the tronista from Ciez, Bonifacio Pérez Ballesteros. , who finished it in 2008,
completing the set with a set of velvet finery made by the Sisters of the
Brotherhood and parading it for the first time in the Procession of the
Penitent on Good Friday morning in 2006, replacing its Head.