The Hermitage Built for Children Fleeing Volcanic Ash

Once upon a time in the land of Lanzarote, the first Cathedral of San Marcial de Limoges stood by the salt spray. Founded in 1404, this great seat of the Canary Islands was eventually torn asunder by the жестокость of pirates in the sixteenth century. Because the sea brought only violence, the Diocese fled to Las Palmas in 1483, and the name changed to the Diocese of Canarias.

To seek safety from the tides, a new temple to San Marcial was raised high in the hills. It sat 350 metres above the waves, nestled beneath the mountain called the Atalaya de Femés. When the earth groaned and fire poured from the ground in 1730 and 1736, this stone refuge became a sanctuary for the weary. It served as a hospital and an orphanage for children fleeing the ash.

Inside the single nave, a stone arch parts the way to the altar. There stands a polychromed wooden image of San Marcial, carved in 1734 by Sebastián Fernández Méndez, with a retablo wrought by José Camacho. San Marcial de Limoges remains the patron of Lanzarote and a co-patron of the Diocese of Canarias. Every year on 7 July, the village of Femés remembers the ancient founding of the Diocese of San Marcial del Rubicón with a solemn Eucharist and a procession through the streets.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons