A tradition celebrated every year by the Barceloneta Fishermen’s Guild, usually on the Saturday closest to July 16 (the feast day of the Virgen del Carmen).
A procession leaves from the parish church of San Miguel and makes its way to the Fishermen’s Wharf. There, the statue is placed on one of the boats and, accompanied by the rest of the fleet in procession, travels around the waters of the port. Afterwards, a mass is held on the wharf and offerings are made to the Virgin to ask for protection at sea.
Legend has it that the Virgin saved an English ship adrift in the middle of a terrible storm. In the midst of despair, one of the sailors went out to pray, tore off his Carmelite scapular, and threw it into the sea. This caused the storm to stop immediately.
In the 18th century, Mallorcan admiral Antonio Barceló y Pont de la Terra promoted this festival among his men, and the sailors immediately made her their patron saint and began to call her ‘Stella Maris’. Little by little, devotion spread among sailors and slowly replaced San Telmo, who had traditionally been the original patron saint of Catalan navigators and sailors.
