El Soler Blasco Museum de Xàbia has received an important donation linked to local religious history. It is about the cingulum (a cord with tassels at the ends that is used to tie wide garments around the waist) of the tunic of the first image of Jesús Nazareno that was worshiped in Xàbia. The ornament is more than 250 years old (the image of the Nazarene arrived in Xàbia in 1767) and has remained hidden for almost a century.
The donation has been made by the family of Ángeles Diego Sapena thanks to the mediation and inquiries made by Bartolomé Bas Segarra “Aspirina”. This neighbor, when he was a child and helped in the pharmacy of a relative, overheard the name of the person who had hidden this relic to save it from the exalted acts that surrounded the first days of the Civil War, when the image was destroyed of the Nazarene.
It was Pascual Diego, known as “El batlet” and he hid the relic so well and kept the secret so well that his daughter Ángeles never found it despite the fact that Bartolomé Bas had asked him a few times. Now, 85 years later, her descendants have discovered the secret behind a great-grandmother's dresser - an old piece of furniture that has been passed down from generation to generation - in a hidden compartment behind a drawer.
The cingulum, with three tassels, is the same that appears in the oldest photos and prints that are preserved of the Nazarene in Xàbia in the XNUMXth century. Now, it will be exhibited at the Soler Blasco museum.
Both the mayor, José ChulviAs the councilman of Culture, Quico Moragues, have thanked this so symbolic donation that proves the historical veneration of Xàbia for Jesús Nazareno.
