Drought-stricken Spanish village seeks divine assist with rain

March 27, 2023

With drought decimating crops in Catalonia, Spain, one small village is combating again — with prayer.

Farmers in mountainous L’Espunyola are in search of divine intervention in hopes that crop-saving rain will come inside the subsequent two weeks. If it doesn’t, mentioned Josep Altarriba, his whole harvest may very well be ruined.

Native residents participate in a procession carrying a statue of the Our Girl of the Torrents, a virgin traditionally related to drought, in l’Espunyola, north of Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, March 26, 2023. Farmers and parishioners gathered Sunday on the small hermitage of l’Espunyola, a rural village in Catalonia, to attend a mass asking the native virgin Our Girl of the Torrents for rain. (Emilio Morenatti/AP)

He and about 250 fellow villagers on Sunday took half in a particular Mass and procession to entreat Our Girl of the Torrents for an help. The Girl is a regionally commemorated virgin related to rain, and Spain is going through an unprecedented drought.

Worshippers took her effigy from its perch on the native church and paraded across the village, with the bishop and parishioners strolling solemnly behind. It was her first day out since 2008.

“It’s not a magic act, it’s an act of belief,” mentioned Bishop Francesc Conesa advised The Related Press.

View of La Baells reservoir in Berga, about 112 km (69 miles) north of Barcelona. Spain, Sunday, March 26, 2023. Farmers and parishioners gathered Sunday on the small hermitage of l’Espunyola, a rural village in Catalonia, to attend a mass asking the native virgin Our Girl of the Torrents for rain. (Emilio Morenatti/AP)

The drought has affected olive timber all through Spain, and final fall’s harvest was half the earlier winter’s haul. Final yr was Spain’s sixth driest ever, and its hottest for the reason that first information had been logged in 1961.

Three years of extraordinarily excessive temperatures and equally low rainfall have tipped the whole nation into long-term drought.

The drought can also be depleting reservoirs, particularly within the northeastern a part of the nation, the place Catalonia is situated, and the three reservoirs in L’Espunyola’s space are at lower than a 3rd of capability.

With Information Wire Companies