All the Secrets of the Chapels and Relics of Malaga Cathedral in a Book: How to Make Ink and Cook Partridges

If there is someone for whom the Malaga Cathedral holds no secrets, that person is Alberto Palomo Cruz. After almost forty years working in the ... first temple of the diocese, juggling duties as archivist and sacristan, this Thursday he presents a 250-page book in which he has collected all the history of the basilica's chapels and some of the lesser-known curiosities to the general public.

'Enclosures with History: Documentary Contributions and Curiosities about the Devotions and Chapels of the Malaga Cathedral' is the title of a publication edited by the Publishing Center of the Provincial Council and that will be released this Thursday evening, in an event scheduled for 7 PM in the cathedral choir.

The book is the result of many years of research and classification of the Cathedral's documentary resources. "We tend to consider cathedrals as unitary buildings, but in the past, they were a conglomerate of chapels which, in practice, were like small independent churches with their own customs, worship, chaplains, and sacristans, as was the case with the chapels of the Virgin of the Kings and Saint Barbara in our Cathedral," Palomo explains.

Relics

In addition to the history of all the chapels, the publication also provides a thorough review of the relics that the Cathedral treasures, a collection that ranges from a Roman-era flask containing the blood of Saint Justina, to a bone particle from the blessed Friar Leopoldo de Alpandeire, recently donated.

The last chapters address the people who were in charge of these enclosures and who left written records not only to provide themselves with ink made for use in their books, but also recipes for medicines and even culinary recipes. "Nothing strange, because preachers and prebendaries were often paid in kind, with the case of the chaplains who attended the Chapel of Saint Barbara receiving annually, on the feast of the patron saint, several dozen partridges which they prepared according to recipes they carefully recorded in their books," the historian points out.

The book presentation will open with a concert by organist Antonio del Pino, and a welcome from the dean, José Ferrary. The fourth vice president of the Provincial Council, Francisca Caracuel, will attend. This publication has been laid out by Manuel Jesús Benítez Alba and proofread by Alejandra García López. Susana Rodríguez de Tembleque García, head of the Cathedral's archive, wrote the prologue, and the illustrations are mostly by Rafael Rodríguez Puente.