Montserrat

Montserrat—think serrated mountain, like the curves on your bread knife—was our destination for this morning. We left shortly after 8 a.m. in heavy wind, dark skies and light rain for a one hour ride to the foot of the mountain followed by a short train ride to the monastery located about three-fourths of the way up.

Montserrat is a town, a mountain range and a monastery. The town located at the bottom has a population of some 28,000. The range is ten kilometers long and five kilometers wide; it’s highest peak, St. Jerome at 4,055 feet.

Founded in 1025 A.D., the monastery now consists of 80 monks who practice the rule of St. Benedict—prayer and work. A boys choir of 35 voices also lives on the premise during the week, returning to their homes on the weekend.

Even with crowds of tourists and pilgrims wandering around the grounds, I felt a deep spiritual sense that this was a holy place, perhaps had been a holy place long before Abbot Oliba founded Santa Maria de Montserrat nearly a millennium ago. A very important hermitage existed there previously owing to a statue of the Virgin venerated there since 880, and perhaps even before that time other religious groups considered this a place where one feels connected to the “principals and powers,” that have formed the very root of existence. The rugged beauty of the mountain certainly lends itself to these feelings.

Because this has been a place of worship for so long, there is also a history about the place. Pilgrims have traveled there for over a thousand years. Napoleon’s troupes burned and sacked the abbey twice in the early 1800’s and Republican forces killed 22 priests from the abbey during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930. Even though it is a place set aside for worship and cloistered community, due to its longevity, the abbey has found itself engulfed in the fortunes and tragedies of Catalan and Spain for most of its existence.

The area is also a wonderful and yet peculiar part of nature that lends itself naturally as a setting for worship. Judy found a quote which explained the area well. “The lofty, bulbous formations make you gaze and wonder how nature was able to create such peculiar beauty.”

We found that the weather began to clear a little as we arrived. Our guide spent several minutes orienting us to the area before taking us to our first destination, the huge Basilica. She made sure we understood the difference between a basilica, which is a large, important church and a cathedral, the home church of a bishop. This one is beautiful and ornate consisting of a center nave with several small chapels along each side. There is a free standing altar at the front of the chancel area with a beautiful suspended crucifix above it. High above the cancel area and set in an elaborately decorated, gold trimmed, arched rarados is a special altar to the Black Madonna, one of the patron saints of Catalan. Worshipers are allowed to climb a back stair and come near to venerate the ancient relic.

The Black Madonna is a wood carving of Mary with the child Jesus sitting on her lap. Originally it was the color of the wood from which it was made, but over the years the smoke, breath of pilgrims and general aging has turned the carving black.

During the two hours that we spent there, we had ample time for other adventures. We sampled some delicious liquors made by the monks, purchased a baguette and some local cheese, enjoyed a audio/visual presentation about the monastery, and took these pictures we hope you will enjoy.