Pope Leo XIV presides over a Mass marking the Catholic feast of Corpus Christi at Plaza de Cibeles in Madrid, Spain, Sunday, June 7, 2026, on the second day of his seven-day apostolic go to to mainland Spain and the Canary Islands.
Manu Fernandez/AP
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Manu Fernandez/AP
MADRID — Pope Leo XIV honored Spain’s centuries-old custom of non secular devotion on Sunday as a “school of faith” for right this moment, as he presided over a Mass earlier than one million individuals and highlighted one of the iconic expressions of Spanish fashionable piety with a procession over flower-petal carpets.
The gang cheered and shouted “This is the youth of the pope!” as Leo arrived for the Mass at a central Madrid plaza. He looped across the plaza and surrounding streets in his popemobile to a crowd packed a number of rows deep of individuals wanting to witness the primary papal go to in 15 years.
Sunday’s Mass fell on the Catholic Corpus Domini feast day, which regularly options processions of trustworthy via cities and cities led by a priest carrying the Eucharist. In Spain as in different predominantly Catholic nations, the processions typically function elaborate floral carpets organized alongside the route.
In line with Spanish organizers, the 16 flower carpets adorning the half-kilometer (mile) procession route off Plaza Cibeles had been ready by a Spanish florists affiliation from Galicia. Florists used greater than 30,000 flowers, most the yellow and white colours of the Holy See flag, for the carpets that function decorations such because the Holy See keys.
Leo, who arrived in Spain on Saturday at first of his weeklong go to, has been eager to focus on the lengthy custom of Catholic devotion right here to encourage particularly younger generations to search out their religion in a once-staunchly Catholic nation the place non secular observance has largely been on the wane.
In his homily Sunday, Leo honored Spain’s custom of the Corpus Domini processions, saying the floral carpets specific the “spiritual sentiments of this country” via “altars erected in the streets.”
“This is not an exhibition, a remnant of folklore or a simple display of beauty,” he mentioned. “It is a profession of faith in the presence of the risen Lord, who is alive and continues to walk among us.”
He mentioned the continued observance of such devotional practices factors to what Spain can and needs to be for the world.
“Herein lies the task of Spain today and in the future: to ensure that the religiosity which has shaped and defined this country for centuries is not a museum of the past to be visited, but a school of faith from which to draw even today,” he mentioned.
On the finish of the Mass, Leo carried a gilded monstrance, or container, holding a Eucharistic host and walked over the floral carpets, as kids dropped further petals earlier than him and the group tossed petals from behind the barricades.
Pope Leo XIV greets a baby upon arriving within the popemobile at Plaza de Cibeles for a Holy Mass and Corpus Christi procession in Madrid, Spain, Sunday, June 7, 2026, on the second day of his seven-day apostolic go to to mainland Spain and the Canary Islands.
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Andrea Comas/AP
A vigil attracts big crowds as Leo arrives
The large turnout in Spain started the day of Leo’s arrival, when an estimated 600,000 younger Spaniards attended a vigil service Saturday night time. They knelt for a number of minutes in silent prayer alongside Leo, suggesting that there’s certainly curiosity within the religion amongst younger individuals regardless of Spain’s closely secularized society.
“Let me take the opportunity to tell all of you: Don’t ever be afraid of thinking about a vocation to the priesthood or religious life, or other services in the church!” Leo advised the group.
Irati Valda and Javier Hormazal, a younger couple, held up a cardboard signal asserting they will get married on June 13 and had been ushered up near obtain Leo’s blessing through the vigil.
“To see so many young people together, it’s incredible. Half a million people in silence, this is something you will only live once,” Valda mentioned.
Individuals look forward to the arrival of Pope Leo XIV forward of a Holy Mass and Corpus Christi procession at Plaza de Cibeles in Madrid, Spain, Sunday, June 7, 2026, on the second day of his seven-day apostolic go to to mainland Spain and the Canary Islands.
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Manu Fernandez/AP
A type of fashionable piety relationship again centuries
For Sunday’s Mass and procession, native organizers mentioned 1.2 million individuals had turned out on a superb spring morning on the central plaza and surrounding streets, with extra making an attempt to get in.
The custom of laying flower carpets — and destroying them when the procession tramples them — dates again two centuries and is fashionable additionally in Latin America, the place elaborate sand designs are additionally made. The painstaking shows are thought-about an providing to the Eucharist.
Poland has already had its custom of Corpus Domini flower carpets acknowledged by UNESCO, and Spain’s Galicia area is making an attempt to have its custom listed together with different nations as a part of the world’s intangible cultural heritage.
Wildly fashionable non secular processions, pilgrimages and feasts proceed to be held in most Spanish areas. Essentially the most recognizable are Holy Week processions through the closing week of Lent the place brotherhoods and robed penitents parade ornate statues of Christ and the Virgin Mary via cities, cities and villages alongside marching bands. Such processions draw the trustworthy in addition to droves of non-believers and vacationers.
Spanish cities and cities additionally usually honor native patron saints with fiestas. Spiritual pilgrimages to native shrines combine piety with communal festivities and music. In Andalusia, the El Rocío pilgrimage fetches one million people who make a protracted, dusty journey over the Pentecost weekend on horseback and adorned coated wagons to venerate an icon of the Virgin Mary.
Leo arrived in Spain on Saturday and urged its individuals to place an finish to polarization and work for unity. Later Sunday he’s to satisfy privately with members of his Augustinian non secular order and handle cultural leaders.
