Image of Christ is returned to Church

THE much revered religious image Cristo de la Sangre, a figure inspiring a great Christian following on Majorca, will be returned to the Church of the Annunciation in Palma on Saturday, 29 November. A Church heritage delegate, Pere Llabrés, reported that the work on its reconstruction has taken the best part of a year to complete. It will finally be returned to its traditional site where, on 18th December last year, the statue was heavily damaged following an attack by a mentally ill church visitor. The restoration work has been financed by the Council of Majorca which has had the collaboration of the Majorca insurance company, AXA. A contribution of 18'000 euros was made by the company to the overall bill of 90'000 euros. From this figure, 18'000 euros was allocated to a special armoured glass surround which will protect the image from any attacks of this kind in the future. A space has been left, however, in the glass casing, so that the faithfull can touch the sculpture. Antonia Reig, the director of the restoration team, said that during the 11 months' reconstruction work, a task entrusted by the late Bishop of Majorca, a new Cross has been crafted and other aspects of the image have been reconditioned. In spite of the restoration work, said Reig, the sculpture remains “very delicate”, so much so that it has been necessary to fit an internal fibreglass breastplate. Nevertheless, the main part of the statue is made of cork, “a fragile material”. It was because of this that recommendation was made for “special care to be taken when transporting the image, as part of religious processions”, for example.