When it comes to motorcycle security, any help is welcome, either in the physical or spiritual plane. In that second, the “Blessing of the helmets” is framed, a religious event that is celebrated in Fatima, Portugal and in which this year more than 180,000 people have gathered.
The “blessing of the helmets” has celebrated this year its tenth anniversary, in a pilgrimage that leads its participants from all over the world to an event that, in view of the photographs, we can consider as one of the most important biker concentrations of the panorama, despite the fact that the activities are very different from which we are accustomed.
And it is that in the “blessing of helmets” the celebration is much more spiritual, asking the Virgin Mary of spiritual protection and, also, remembering those who are no longer there. The ceremony itself is striking because the priests spray holy water on the helmets of the attendees, blessing the most important protection element of motorcycle users.
The “blessing of helmets” is not the only divine help for motorists
“Many of these motorists come to ask for God’s protection through Our Lady for his trips,” Father Carlos Cabecinhas, rector of the sanctuary, told the Independent. “But they also come to remember those who have already left, who have already died, many of them in accidents, and those who are injured, who need help.”
As a curious fact, the patron of the bikers is San Columbano, who was an Irish missionary of the VI and VII centuries and that Vatican himself officially recognized as a protector of the motorcyclists. And it is that San Columbano, according to the books, was a traveler missionary who toured Europe founding monasteries and spreading faith. The day of San Columbano is November 23.
Either by the Virgin Mary in Fatima, through San Columbano or without divine intervention and with more management in general terms, the important thing is that every time it goes to the road on a motorcycle it is done with the greatest possible security. And everything counts …
