A Saint for All the Single Ladies

oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh put your hands UP! 

We all know the Beyonce song, and all of us single ladies love that we can jam out to something our non-single friends can’t. In Madrid, they have a slightly different take on the power anthem. Instead of putting their hands up, the single ladies put them down… into a bowl full of pins!

June 13th is the Verbena (Festival) of San Antonio de Padua, the patron saint of single women. (Now I don’t know if thats his official title, but I guarantee that is what he is best known for.)  It is held in the town of Moncloa and centers around the Ermita of San Antonio de la Florida, a small but important church that not only has a beautiful fresco ceiling painted by Goya, but is also where he is buried sans head*. Apparently in ye-olden-days, modistillas (dressmakers) of marriageable age would visit the church and throw 13 alfileres (pins) into the baptismal font to pray for a husband. They would then stick their hand in and the number of pins that stuck signified the number of suitors they would have that year. 

Today you can no longer toss pins in the font since the church is a national monument, and a second church has been built next door to preserve the art. This doesn’t stop people from participating in the age old tradition though.  Some women buy cards and rub them on the feet of a statue of the saint for blessings. Others (like myself) visit the lady outside with a basin chained to a tree filled with pins. I gave it a stir and stuck my hand in. First time, no luck… Second time, one pin stuck meaning I have been blessed with one boyfriend for the year. It was in a little deep (I can still see the mark) so it must mean it will be a serious one! Haha. Some girls got even more lucky - if that is what you want to call it - with up to 13 pins sticking to them. 

If you know me, you know I don’t believe in Saints or superstitions, but it was still so fun. 

*There are two hypothesis to why Goya may not have been buried with his head. The first is that he was very smart and wanted his brain to be studied. The second is that he died disliking the monarchy so asked that his body be put in Spain but his head in the more modern France.