“San Benitiño de Lérez”

This popular “romería”, in honour of the saint referred to in local poems as the “santo máis milagreiro” (the most prolific of miracle workers), is held every 11th July in the more modest quarters of Pontevedra. San Benito has enjoyed tremendous popularity amongst the Galician people since the Later Middle Ages, which spread thanks to the major Cistercian monasteries built in Galicia.

Worhsippers pray to this saint in the hope that he will rid them of their ailments, particularly warts. Lérez is the site of a former Benedictine monastery, and a shrine built on the banks of the River Lérez that houses the small image of the saint. Devotees pass under the altar and dip their fingers in the oil lamp which is claimed to have “miraculous” powers. 

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