The annual pilgrimage in honour of the Canaries’ first saint drew almost one thousand people for the early-morning trek at the weekend, with Tenerife’s bus company Titsa laying on special services to ferry walkers up to the starting point at 5am.
An estimated five hundred people set out on the 19-km route from Pedro de San José Betancur’s birthplace in Vilaflor – Spain’s highest village, at 1500 metres, situated south of the Teide volcano – and they were joined by scores of others at different locations as they made their way down the mountain to Granadilla, Charco del Pino, San Isidro and finally El Médano, following the trails used by Pedro take his goats in his early days as a humble herdsman in the early 17th century.
A cave outside El Médano where he took shelter in the winter months has become one of the most important religious shrines on the island, attracting thousands of tourists and locals every year.
Known as the «Saint Francis of Assisi of the Americas», Pedro (born in 1626) is the first saint native to the Canary Islands. He left Tenerife aged 23 for the New World and devoted his life to caring for the poor and infirm in Guatemala. The founder of the Order of Our Lady of Bethlehem died in Guatemala in 1667 and the date of his death (late April) is now used for the annual commemoration of his sainthood in the form of the official pilgrimage route. He was beatified in 1980 and canonised on 30 July 2002, on the occasion of Pope John Paul II’s apostolic visit to Guatemala.
Although this year’s pilgrimage has just taken place, plans are already underway for next year’s event, which will be part of a major commemoration of the saint’s life to coincide with the 400th anniversary of his birth.
Photo: Ayuntamiento de Granadilla, Facebook
