Thursday, September 25, 2014

Montserrat: The Holy Mountain

Toured Montserrat, a mystical mountain of unusually rounded rock spires shaped by wind and rain from a bed of limestone, pebbles and sand that once lay beneath the sea. The Benedictine monastery embedded in the side of the mountain is the most popular outing from Barcelona. On a clear day, you can see all the way to the Pyrenees.

The monastery, the second most important pilgrimage in Spain after Santiago de Compostela, was founded in 1025 in honor of a vision of the Virgin Mary first seen by -- and I’m not kidding here -- shepherds. Destroyed by Napoleon in the early 19th century, the monastery was rebuilt in 1858, and soon began receiving pilgrims and visitors.


The mountain provides an ethereal backdrop for the Virgin of Montserrat, the patron saint of Catalonia, who is enshrined in the monastery’s Royal Basilica. Pilgrims come from around the world to venerate the Virgen de Montserrat known as “the Black Madonna,” a dark wooden sculpture of the Virgin Mary holding the infant Jesus.

Today, a community of about 80 monks lives in the little abbey. The site is also home to the world-renowned boy’s choir known as L’Esclonia. Founded in 1223, the choir includes about 50 boys with some of the most talented young voices in Spain. Listening to a CD of the choir on our way back to Barcelona was inspiring.

Boarding the tour bus in the center of Barcelona, I felt a bit odd being such a “touri,” as we used to call them at Crater Lake. But as I’ve found on these excursions, you meet folks from all over the world and it’s fun talking to people about where they’re from and why they’re here. Aussies are always particularly entertaining.

Anna, our tour guide, spoke excellent English and provided a thorough commentary along the way. I marveled at a pair of Californians -- mother and daughter -- of Mexican heritage as they spoke with Anna fluently in Spanish, and wished I had pursued my study of the language after only two years of the basics in high school.




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