March 12 of each year, the anniversary of the canonization of Saint Francis Xavier, is the reference date for celebrating the Novena of Grace and for many pilgrims to come to the Sanctuary of Javier in what we know as Javieradas.

And although the most numerous are those celebrated on weekends, the first on the Sunday after March 4 (beginning of the novena) and the second on the following Saturday, every day that the novena lasts there are groups of pilgrims who gather. come closer to participating in it. The first day, March 4, is the monastic Javierada, in which the monks of Leyre and La Oliva participate. On Thursday the 7th, there was the priestly celebration attended by a large group of priests from the diocese of Pamplona and Tudela. On Wednesday the 13th, it was the soldiers who are in Navarra who made the pilgrimage, some running from Pamplona. And on the rest of the weekdays, different groups from the different areas, archpriests and vicars of the diocese.

In the Javierada on Sunday, March 10, there were around 5,000 pilgrims who came on foot, some crossing Navarra since Friday. Among them, more than 800 were from the Jesuit schools of Tudela, Pamplona, ​​Durango and San Sebastián, and also from Loiolaetxea. And that of Saturday, March 16, the most massive with around 18,000 pilgrims, in which many attendees came from other dioceses (La Rioja, Soria, Zaragoza, Madrid), who were accompanied by their bishops.

For this reason, the calculation we make from the Javier Sanctuary is that around 30,000 people have come to Javier Castle during these 12 days, confirming the attraction that the missionary Saint continues to have.