Juan Romero de Figueroa (

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

, 16 September 1646 - id. 7 July 1720) was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest, in charge of the

Parish Church of St. Mary the Crowned The Cathedral of Saint Mary the Crowned ( es, Catedral de Santa María la Coronada) is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Gibraltar. It is the primary centre of Catholic worship in the Diocese of Gibraltar. History 15th century The original buildi ...

(''Santa Maria la Coronada y San Bernardo'')A short history of the Diocese of Gibraltar
during the last years of Gibraltar's Spanish period and first ones of the

British period British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

, until his death. He remained at his post even after the territory's capture by an Anglo-Dutch fleet in 1704 on behalf of the Archduke Charles, one of the claimants to the Spanish throne in the War of the Spanish Succession, when most of its population abandoned Gibraltar (only about 60 out of 4,000 remained).

Capture of Gibraltar

Juan Romero de Figueroa was born in Gibraltar and baptized on 16 September 1646 in the Church of St. Mary the Crowned. His parents were Álvaro Martín and Leonor Vázquez. He took the minor orders in 1661, and was appointed deputy chancellor of the Seminary of Cádiz in 1674. Since 1682 he had its parish in Gibraltar, and was the priest of the Parish Church of St. Mary the Crowned on 4 August 1704 when the city capitulated to the besieging Anglo- Dutch forces. Along with his

curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' (''cura'') ''of souls'' of a parish. In this sense, "curate" means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy w ...

and the

bell ringer A bell-ringer is a person who rings a bell, usually a church bell, by means of a rope or other mechanism. Despite some automation of bells for random swinging, there are still many active bell-ringers in the world, particularly those with an adv ...

he successfully protected his church from the soldiers who ran amok after the surrender, other churches in the territory were desecrated. The Terms of Surrender of Gibraltar and the definite phrasing of the Treaty of Utrecht allowed for the practice of the Catholic Faith, so Romero de Figueroa went on as the priest of the Catholic population of the town until his demise, in 1720. In order to facilitate and stabilise ecclesiastical governance, the Bishop of Cádiz y Ceuta, who had jurisdiction over the church in Gibraltar, made him the first Vicar General of Gibraltar. The altar of the

Blessed Sacrament The Blessed Sacrament, also Most Blessed Sacrament, is a devotional name to refer to the body and blood of Christ in the form of consecrated sacramental bread and wine at a celebration of the Eucharist. The term is used in the Latin Church of the ...

in the

Cathedral of St. Mary the Crowned The Cathedral of Saint Mary the Crowned ( es, Catedral de Santa María la Coronada) is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Gibraltar. It is the primary centre of Catholic worship in the Diocese of Gibraltar. History 15th century The original buildi ...

keeps a marble tablet with the initials of Juan Romero de Figueroa. His mortal remains lay buried in there. Romero de Figueroa was an eye-witness to the capture of Gibraltar. His accounts of the incident and the first years of

Habsburg The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...

and British dominion over the town are notable, as some of the very few primary sources available. Two main works were produced by him: the annotations in the Gibraltar baptismal records which are currently kept in the Church of St. Mary the Crowned ( es, Iglesia de Santa María la Coronada) in San Roque (a municipality in Gibraltar's township where most of the villagers settled down after the 1704 Anglo-Dutch siege), and a manuscript portraying the events he beheld, which went missing in the midst of the Peninsular War. However, the manuscript was verbatim quoted at length by

Ignacio López de Ayala Ignacio López de Ayala (18 October 1739 Grazalema, Cádiz – 24 April 1789 in Tarifa) was a Spanish writer, astronomer and historian. Life He was a professor of poetry at the Reales Estudios de San Isidro in Madrid. He authored a neoclassical ...

, author of ''Historia de Gibraltar'' (Madrid, 1782). As soon as the Franco-Spanish siege of 1704–1705 had been lifted, Romero de Figueroa began secretly to send documents, religious jewellery and plate, pictures, and ornaments to the settlements established in the Campo de Gibraltar. He was also responsible for the safekeeping and rescue of the statue of

Our Lady of Europe Our Lady of Europe ( es, Nuestra Señora de Europa or Virgen de Europa) is a title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary patroness of Gibraltar and protectress of Europe. The entire European continent was consecrated under the protection of Our Lady of ...

from the shrine of the same name. Soon after the capture of Gibraltar in 1704, the shrine was sacked and stripped of all its valuables by soldiers running amok, disobeying the orders of their officers. The statue of Our Lady was mutilated and flung onto the rocks below, where it was found by a fisherman. He took the remains to Romero de Figueroa, who sent them to the neighbouring Algeciras, where the statue was repaired and given a new home in a small chapel then dedicated to

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux Bernard of Clairvaux, O. Cist. ( la, Bernardus Claraevallensis; 109020 August 1153), venerated as Saint Bernard, was an abbot, mystic, co-founder of the Knights Templars, and a major leader in the reformation of the Benedictine Order through t ...

, which was later rededicated as the

Chapel of Our Lady of Europe ) , religious_affiliation = Roman Catholic , province = Diocese of Cádiz and Ceuta , status = Chapel , groundbreaking = , year_completed = 1769 , founded_by = Gálvez family , architect ...

. In 1864 the statue was returned to Gibraltar, at the request of John Baptist Scandella, Vicar Apostolic of Gibraltar.Friends of Gibraltar Heritage Society Newsletter no. 73
, dated August 2005. Mail -Marques de Lendinez. Question: "What is the significance of Our Lady of Europa in Gibraltar?"

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Romero Figueroa, Juan Spanish Roman Catholic priests 1646 births 1720 deaths Spanish people from Gibraltar