One grey cold morning in November, we set off to see one of the best monasteries in the Catalan area.   Montserrat is a spectacularly beautiful Benedictine monk mountain retreat about an hour outside Barcelona.  Not only is Montserrat Monastery of significant religious importance but the natural beauty surrounding the monastery is simply breathtaking and is surrounded by some of the most unusual rock formations in the whole of Catalonia.   We were with Mike and Brenda and took the funicular to the top of the mountain, from this point people can follow a number of different walks to different buildings cut into the rocks, all with amazing views.  As it was cold (at 11am it was 7c and 1200m above sea level) and we were not prepared, we refrained from the walks……well, that our excuse!

The history of Montserrat is fascinating and started in 880 when a small group of shepherd children saw a bright light descending from the sky in the Montserrat mountains,as well as hearing angels singing and the music filled their hearts with a radiant joy.

Overwhelmed by the experience the children ran home to frantically recall the experience to their parents. The parents were sceptical but knew their children were trustworthy and honest and so they went to where the children had experienced the visions to see if they could see what all the fuss was about.  For the whole month following the first visitation the parents were also witness to the same heavenly experiences and were left with only one conclusion. The visions were considered to be a sign from God.  A local vicar was brought to the scene and witnessed the same experiences as the children and parents. The visions occurred in the same location in a cave on Montserrat mountain. When this cave was explored by the religious elders of the community they found an image of the Virgin Mary. And from that moment on the cave became a holy sanctuary for religious pilgrims.  The cave became a Holy Grotto which has since been ordained as a holy place and is visited by pilgrims and curious onlookers from all over the world.  At least once in their lifetime, Catalonians do an overnight pilgrimage from their homes to Montserrat to witness the morning sunrise in a spiritual setting.

Views Approaching the Monastery

The Monastery & The Black Virgin

Santa Maria de Montserrat is the Benedictine abbey which hosts the Virgin of Montserrat, the Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat (a publishing house with the oldest press in the world, still running, with the first book published in 1499) and is home to the Escolania, a boys’ choir of sopranos and altos.

The Virgin of Montserrat is a statue of the Virgin Mary and infant Christ, it is one of the black Madonnas of Europe, hence its familiar Catalan name, la Moreneta (“The little dark-skinned one”). Believed by some to have been carved in Jerusalem in the early days of the church, it is a Romanesque sculpture in wood from the late 12th century. Legend has it that the Benedictine monks could not move the statue to construct their monastery, choosing to instead build around it. The statue’s sanctuary is located at the rear of the main chapel, where an altar of gold surrounds the icon.  People stream past it to tough the globe held in her hand……

Fun on the Funicular & Views at the Top