page_title: Virgen de los desamparados
section_title: Origin
hierarchical_section_title: Virgen de los desamparados / Origin
caption_attribution_description: English: fiesta 2014
context_page_description: Our Lady of the Forsaken is a Catholic invocation of the Virgin Mary. She is the patroness of Valencia and one of seven patrons of the Autonomous communities of Spain. She appears with a lily in one hand and in the other, she carries the baby Jesus who bears the cross in his arms. Her posture is characterized by a slight forward tilt, and hence, she is known affectionately as the Geperudeta of Valencia. Her image is housed in the 'Basilica de la Virgen de los Desamparados'.
context_section_description: Legend tells, on 24 February 1409, a Friday at the beginning of  Lent, a priest called Father Joan Gilabert Jofré, was on his way from the convent on Mercy Square to St. Catherine's (Santa Catalina) church in Valencia to deliver a sermon. On the way, on Silverworks Street, (now Martin Mengod Street) he witnessed the lynching of a mentally ill man and intervened to save the man. In response to this event, he preached on the subject of care of the mentally ill and established a hospice for the mentally ill.
  A manuscript of Manuel Calvo dated 22 December 1848, reads:
  "En la present ciutat ha molta obra pia é de gran caritat é sustentació: emperò una n’hi manca, que’s de gran necessitat, so es un hospital o casa on los pobres innocents é furiosos fossen acollits car molts pobres, innocents e furiosos van per aquesta ciutat, los cual passen gran desayres de fam e de fret e injuries, per tal como sa innocènsia i furor no saben guanyar ni demanar lo que han menester en sustentació de llur vida, e perço dormen per les carreres e perijen de fam e de fret, e moltes malvades persones no havent Deu devant sa consciència; los fan moltes injuries e senyaladament allà aon les troben endormits, los nafren i maten y algunes fembres innocents; aconteix així mateix que los pobres furiosos fan dany a mòltes persones anant per la ciutat. Aquestes coses son noties a tota la ciutat de València, perquè serià sancta cosa é obra molt sancta que en la ciutat de València fos feta una habitació ó hospital en què semblants folls é innocents estiguessin en tal manera que no anassen per la ciutat ni poguessin fer dany ni els en fos fet".
  Translated, the passage reads: 
  "In this city, one finds many very important pious and charitable works; however, there is one great need, and that is a hospital or a house where the innocent, the poor and the mad can be cared for. There are many such people wandering this city, suffering from cold and hunger because they cannot earn a living or ask for help. They sleep on the streets, starving and cold. Many wicked people, who do not have God in their hearts insult them, point at them when they are asleep, injure and kill them and rape innocent women. It also happens that some of those who are mad attack citizens on the streets. Everyone in Valencia knows this. It would be a very good thing, a very Holy work if Valencia were to build a house or a hospital where the innocent poor and the mad could be housed so that they would not be on the streets being hurt nor making trouble."
  Ten people responded by building the hospital they called "El Hospital de Los Locos"  and on 1 June 1410, Sancta Maria officially opened the 'Hospital d'Innocents, Follcs i Orats' under the protection of the 'Virgin, dels Innocents', known by the people as 'Holy Nostra Dona Maria dels Innocents'.
caption: 300 years old Image of Nuestra Señora de los Desamparados de Manila, Enshrined at the Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de los Desamparados in Santa Ana Manila (Philippines). This image is made in Valencia in the year 1713 and touched to the original image of Our Lady of the Abandoned enshrined in the basilica before going to the Philippines in the year 1717 (Photo by Kel Daquiaog).
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