World’s biggest monstrance leads yearly Spain procession

The much beloved Virgin of the Forsaken, the city’s patroness, presides over the whole structure. In restoration works just a few years ago, it was discovered that the original silver coins donated by the poor worker are embedded in the monstrance. This momentous treasure normally greets visitors who come to the cathedral’s museum, but it is most seen when it makes its way through the streets of the city on Corpus Christi, bringing Christ to the people. After a large group of vested priests processes down the street during the annual Corpus Christi procession in Valancia, Spain, followed by a group of sacristans creating a cloud of incense, Jesus arrives as flower petals rain down on the monstrance, thrown by the faithful gathered on their balconies and those lining the streets. June 2, 2024. Credit: Miriam Sancho As Jesus passed by this year, one member of the faithful, Carlos Sancho, who was only a youth in the years the monstrance was first used, remembered the symbolic coins donated by that laborer to León. Embedded now in the monstrance, he recalled, “they mean that the monstrance could never be sold, because the money would have to be returned to all the...