Calle de San Simón

In the suburb that stretched south of the Puerta de Atocha lived a friar who ended up a saint and left his name to this street. Simón de Rojas came to Madrid in 1619 as tutor to the royal children and became confessor to Queen Isabella of Bourbon, wife of Philip IV. Before mixing with the court he had already left his mark on the neighbourhood. In 1612 he founded the Congregation of the Slaves of the Most Sweet Name of Mary, a lay brotherhood that aided the poor, prisoners, prostitutes and street children. Its members handed out thousands of prints of the Virgin across Madrid bearing the words “Ave María”, and managed to have those two words engraved in gold letters on the façade of the Royal Alcázar. Here comes the part told in a lower voice. It is said that Simón de Rojas got the prostitutes to leave the neighbouring street, and that when the suspect houses were pulled down, corpses appeared in the wells. The friar’s exclamation before the remains is said to have named Calle del Ave María, while the adjoining one was bound forever to his figure. Barely 77 metres of street that keep, in their name, a saint of the neighbourhood.