Brotherhood of Our Father Jesus of Charity and Our Lady of Grief

Following the emergence of a group of young confraternity members whose enthusiasm led to the founding of this young confraternity, on 30 June 2013 the founding charter of the Brotherhood of Nazarenes of Our Father Jesus of Charity was signed, under the sponsorship and support of the rural vicars Don Jesús Poyato Varo and Don David Aguilera Malagón. Just a year later, the sketch of the Christ figure that would eventually become the brotherhood’s titular image was unveiled at an event held during Lent 2014. On 9 July of that same year, the confraternity’s statutes were approved, and it then became a full member of the Agrupación de Cofradías (Association of Confraternities).

On 8 March 2015, the carving of Our Father Jesus of Charity was presented and blessed — a life-size candelero image by the local sculptor Francisco Javier López del Espino, made of cedar wood. Having decided to depict the episode of Herod’s Mockery of Jesus, the brotherhood chose an image showing a captive Christ with his hands tied behind his back, in a walking pose, with lowered gaze and a serene expression before the trial to which the tetrarch subjected him.

Despite the original intention to process on the afternoon of Holy Monday, at a general assembly of brothers the confraternity decided to hold its procession on the morning of Holy Thursday, an unprecedented time slot for Holy Week in Lucena. In 2018 the brotherhood made its penitential procession at this time for the first time, although the Lord of Charity had first processed through the streets of Lucena on the Lenten night of 11 March 2017, on the old gilded platform of the Holy Burial float and lit by the four silver-plated lanterns of the old throne of the Christ of the Passion. The Nazarenes wear an unbleached habit with a blue sash, with the confraternity’s coat of arms shown on the hood.

After processing on the platform of the image of Saint Christopher in 2018, the confraternity unveiled, on Holy Thursday 2019, a throne of carved mahogany wood acquired in Jerez and restored by the local cabinetmaker Julián Valle Santamaría.

Later, in Holy Week 2022, the brotherhood of San Mateo unveiled the image of King Herod, also the work of Francisco Javier López del Espino. This candelero image in cedar wood is the one that finally gives biblical sense to the scene depicted, with a Herodian guard figure still to be made to complete the group.