A
group of Brothers belonging to the Brotherhood of La Oración del Huerto and El
Santo Sepulcro decided in 1973 to establish a new Brotherhood to parade with a
Crucified. After several attempts, the Brotherhood of the Holy Christ of
Forgiveness was definitively constituted in 1976, although since 1974 and the
following year it has participated, under the auspices of the Brotherhood of
the Holy Reclining Christ and Holy Virgin of Pain, in the Processional Parades
of Holy Wednesday night, General Procession, and Good Friday night, Holy Burial
Procession, with an existing Crucified in the Convent of San Joaquín and San
Pascual provisionally mounted on the throne of the Holy Christ of Agony.
The
Image of its owner, owned by Mrs. Josefina Pérez de Tarazona, is kept in an
Altarpiece of the Convent of San Joaquín and San Pascual, for which it had been
carved in wood by the Valencian sculptor Vicente Benedito in 1942 commissioned
by the aforementioned family. From there, and after the traditional Besapié,
the transfer to the Basilica of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción takes place on
Palm Saturday.
Designed
by D. Antonio Marín Oliver in 1976, the original throne, a simple wooden base
brocaded in navy blue velvet with metal ornaments, made by the master carpenter
Francisco Dato Moreno, and four wrought iron lanterns, the work of Emiliano
Alfaro Romero, It was renovated in 1997 by the local artist Bonifacio Pérez
Ballesteros, who a year earlier had composed a new cross for the Image carved
in old wood and of identical workmanship to the original, and completed with a
new set of finery embroidered in gold on velvet by the Religious Justinian
Mothers of God of Murcia. D. Antonio Marín Oliver himself also designed the
banner, which was also embroidered in gold by the Justinian Mothers of God
Religious of Murcia and whose central canvas is the work of the Ciezano painter
Juan Ruiz Tortosa. In 2009, the Paso was completed with an original bell
holder: a polychrome wooden sculpture of an angel, the work of the new sculptor
Antonio Jesús Yuste Navarro from Ciez.
In
its first years of existence, the Brotherhood marched in procession accompanied
by the O.J.E., until a few years later it had its own Third of Nazarenes,
which, however, began to parade with the current uniformity in 1993, the year
in which the government of the Brotherhood its current President, D. Pascual
Villa Salmerón; Under his mandate, the Brotherhood has incorporated two tercio
lanterns and new staffs into its procession, both made in the workshops of the
Ciezano goldsmith Francisco Penalva in 1994 and 2003, respectively, as well as
a censer in 2005.
After
their Statutes were approved in 1976, the Bishop of the Diocese authorized them
to procession in the Procession of the Resurrected on the morning of
Resurrection Sunday with the Blessed Virgin of Beautiful Love, a carving made
in 1940 by the Murcian sculptor Juan González Moreno, owned by Mrs. Josefina
Marín-Blázquez, who has her own chapel in the Basilica of Nuestra Señora de la
Asunción and whose transfer is still celebrated prior to the Procession from
the Hermitage of San Bartolomé; the throne on which it parades was made at the
end of the 19th century by Maestro Cañamón for the Image of Santa María
Magdalena. Image and throne have been recently restored: the Image in 1997, by
Javier Bernal Casanova; the throne in 2002, by Bonifacio Pérez Ballesteros.
There
is news of an ancient Image of the Blessed Virgin of Beautiful Love that may
have arrived in Cieza at the end of the 19th century, its first Waitresses
being Ms. Narcisa Talón and Ms. Piedad Jaén Talón, and which had an important
novena from very early on. in the month of May that was celebrated until 1907
in the Church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción and from then until the Civil
War in the Convent of Santa Clara. It seems that this Image replaced a
primitive carving of María Santísima de la Soledad who, under the invocation of
Virgen de Gracia, had been parading in the Procession of the Risen One since
1754. Like this one, the new Image continued to process under the protection of
the Brotherhood of Our Lady of Solitude until the Brotherhood of the Holy
Christ of Forgiveness took charge of it, this being the first Brotherhood that
had a female relay of anderas in said Procession, an example that has since
been followed by practically all the other Brotherhoods.
In
1999 the Brotherhood premiered its third Step, The Encounter of Jesus and Mary
on Calle de la Amargura, a sculptural group carved in wood by the Murcian
sculptor José Hernández Navarro made up of an Image of Jesus with the Cross on
his back and two other Mary and Saint John who parade in the Procession of the
Penitent on Good Friday morning on a throne carved in wood and gold, the work
of Bonifacio Pérez Ballesteros, which is completed with a set of finery
embroidered in gold on velvet by the Religious Justinian Mothers of God of
Murcia. And in 2003, he acquired a place where he could set up his House-Museum
in the near future.
The
Brotherhood also has a Children's Step, María Santísima de la Alegría, the work
of the Murcian sculptor José A. Hernández Navarro, with whom it participates in
the Children's Procession on Holy Saturday afternoon.