Emotional memories – María Auxiliadora Shrine 📷 Malaga – Spain

There are certain places that bring back memories from another part of the world, perhaps a world of childhood and teenage memories, and I found one of those places.

When I was a child, I went to a Catholic school called María Auxiliadora, where I completed my primary and secondary education. It was a school for girls only, and inside it was the chapel of María Auxiliadora. It is also called María de Don Bosco, and it has a long religious history behind it, but that is beside the point. The truth is that there are Salesians in different parts of the world, and their work is these schools where María Auxiliadora is the most important image.

I grew up in that environment, then life taught me many things and paths change. But some time ago, walking through one of the streets of the city, I saw that there was a place called Santuario María Auxiliadora and I was curious to visit it.

From what I saw of its exterior façade, it is a fairly modern building, so I assumed that there would not be much history about it, but in this case, the history is the relationship between my childhood and that space. I also assumed that I would not find much information about it, but I will leave you with 1 and 2 that you can consult if you are curious.

As in all cases around the world, in this case there was a Salesian congregation at the end of the 19th century that allowed devotion to this virgin to grow. Also, as I mentioned, she is called the Virgin of Don Bosco, who was a Salesian devoted to the education of children and to whom the Virgin had supposedly entrusted what he had to do, his mission.

In 1907, this image of Mary Help of Christians was recognised, but according to what I read, during the civil war, all the work done by the Salesians was destroyed, including the church being ransacked and the image burned. As in many other cases, the religious were killed. It was not until 1938 that a new image was erected and the activity that had been going on until today was restarted.

This church or sanctuary is located in the Capuchinos neighbourhood in the northern part of the city centre, and if you don't know it's there, it goes unnoticed.

Its exterior façade is sober and modern, with no towers, bell towers or ancient entrances. Instead, the entrance is located behind a gate. As I walked through it, I did not know what to expect, as my memory of my school was of a classic church, with a beautiful ancient style, and where the school with the chapel is now 125 years old. This exterior façade gave me no hint of what I would find inside this church.

Looking at the place from the street opposite, I could see some very beautiful vertical stained-glass windows arranged side by side on a huge brick wall, and right next to it, the white building that also belongs to the brotherhood, but not to the sanctuary. Above that brick building, I could also see the figure of the Virgin Mary.

There were some mosaics, flower-shaped windows with very original grilles, a poster about the different activities of the sanctuary, and little else.

Upon entering, I first felt a great emotion, reminding me of my childhood and adolescence, and a whirlwind of images passed through my mind, not because the place looked similar, quite the contrary, it was very different, but it was still Mary Help of Christians. The first thing I saw was this place reserved for a sculpture of the Virgin Mary, just like the one in my school, and that's where the emotion began.

The interior is modern in every way, from the white walls, but with reliefs. There are no excessive images, but I did like the ceramics on those white walls depicting the Stations of the Cross. I took pictures of a few of them so you could see what beautiful art they are. As I always say, this goes beyond religion; in this case, I greatly admired the art.

Stained glass windows were everywhere, even on the ceiling, something I always look at, and there were also some at the back of the church. There was a lot of colour in this art, which contrasted with both the white walls and the ceiling. Above all, the flashes of light entering through the coloured glass created a beautiful atmosphere. The ceiling seen from behind gave me the impression of being made of rice paper, although it was not.

As I mentioned, there were few images, a painted picture of Mary Help of Christians, sculptures of Christ, the Virgin Mary and Joseph, and of course Don Bosco with the children and teenagers.

The most beautiful thing was the altar, delicate in pastel tones against a soft, light wood background. The Virgin Mary in the middle was very well lit, as was the whole church, with ceramics on either side where

The altar is modern and without much valuable decoration, I mean gold, silver and such, but I do think it has great artistic value. It was what I liked most about the place, along with the original ceiling with its stained glass windows.

The church had air conditioning, which I found very strange because old churches don't have it. I sat down for a moment and admired the beautiful lighting, which was wonderful, and the gleaming white walls that highlighted the artistry of the images.

Despite the more than 12,000 kilometres that separate me from my country of birth, I felt something very special and it was pleasant. It was a beautiful experience and I wanted to share it with all of you.

Thank you very much for joining me today. Best regards. See you soon.
Amonet.