It's a special day today as we celebrate the traditional feast of Our Lady of Montserrat. Montserrat, situated in Catalonia, Spain, holds a significant place in history. According to legend, the original sculpture was crafted by St. Luke and later brought to Montserrat by St. Peter in 50 A.D. St. Ignatius of Loyola, a former Crusader, was inspired to become a missionary after praying before this sacred image of Mary.
The devotion to Our Lady at the shrine of Montserrat has a rich history that dates back to the early 10th century. The Count of Barcelona's confirmation and renewal of an endowment made by his father in 888 marked the beginning of this sacred tradition. The presence of an image of Our Lady among the rocks of Montserrat even before 888 adds a mystical element to the shrine's origin story. The mountain itself, with its towering boulders and Latin-derived name meaning saw-edged mountain, creates a breathtaking backdrop for this spiritual site.
Montserrat's unique landscape, reminiscent of the monasteries on Mount Athos in Greece, adds to the aura of mystery and spirituality surrounding the shrine. The massive boulders that form the mountain group, reaching heights of four thousand feet, contribute to the sense of awe and wonder experienced by visitors. The transformation of the smooth-surfaced boulder into a mountain with a thousand peaks during the Crucifixion of Jesus adds a layer of symbolism to Montserrat's already mystical atmosphere.
The legend of Our Lady's journey from Jerusalem to Barcelona, and her subsequent presence in the mountains to protect them from invaders, adds a touch of folklore to the shrine's history. The oriental features of the Montserrat statue hint at the influence of Byzantine sculptors in the West during that period. The story of shepherds witnessing strange lights and Seraphic music on the mountain in the eighth century further enhances the mystical allure of Montserrat. This sacred place continues to inspire deep impressions and evoke feelings of reverence and wonder in all who visit.
It must have been a truly awe-inspiring moment when the Bishop of Manresa discovered the wooden figure of Our Lady and the Holy Child in the cavern, guided by the shepherds. The decision to leave the statue in a chapel of a nearby hermitage, due to its weight becoming too heavy during the procession, shows a deep sense of reverence and acceptance of divine signs. The fact that the statue is now the most celebrated and important in Spain, known as "La Morenata," speaks volumes about its significance. The dignified expression of Our Lady and the majestic orb she holds must truly be a sight to behold.
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Saint Josemaria and Our Lady of Montserrat
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Saint Josemaria had a strong devotion to Our Lady of Montserrat. Records exist of frequent visits made by him to the shrine of Our Lady of Montserrat near Barcelona, Spain, during the 1940s, especially towards the end of 1946, the year when he moved to Rome.
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| Sanctuary of Montserrat |
His love for our Lady under this advocation continued throughout his life. And it was on the feast of Our Lady of Montserrat, 27 April 1954, that he was cured of diabetes, after a severe allergic reaction which brought him to the point of death.
People who have had a brush with death, especially one involving loss of consciousness, often speak of seeing their lives pass before them, almost as if they were spectators, yet aware that they are the protagonists.
On April 27, 1954, something like this happened to Monsignor Escrivá. It was the feast of Our Lady of Montserrat. Don Alvaro had, as usual, given him an injection five or ten minutes before lunch, but at a lower dosage than that prescribed and using a new kind of long-acting insulin. They went down to the dining room. Shortly after saying grace, as they sat facing each other, the Father suddenly said, “Alvaro! Absolution!” Don Alvaro tells what happened next:
I didn’t understand him. I just could not understand him. God permitted that I did not understand him. And then he repeated, “Absolution!” And for a third time—this was a matter of a few seconds, in all— “Absolution: ‘Ego te absolvo ...’” And at that moment he lost consciousness. I recall that first, he turned a kind of purplish red and then an ashen yellow. And his body seemed to have become very small.
I gave him absolution immediately and did what I could. I called the doctor and put sugar in his mouth, forcing him, with water, to swallow it, because he was not reacting and I could not feel any pulse.
When the doctor — Miguel Angel Madurga, a member of Opus Dei — arrived, the Father had already regained consciousness. The shock had lasted ten minutes. Miguel Angel carefully examined him and confirmed that he was out of danger and there were no complications. The Father, in fact, seemed to have gotten well.
Indeed, he immediately started worrying about that son of his, Miguel Angel. Learning that he had not yet had lunch, he had him eat something, chatting with him all the while and giving no hint that he could not see.
“My son,” he said to Don Alvaro when the doctor had left, “it’s left me blind. I can’t see a thing.”
“Father, why didn’t you tell the doctor?”
“Because I didn’t want to worry him unnecessarily. This may just go away.”
He was blind for several hours. Then, gradually, his sight returned. When he could finally see himself in a mirror, he said, “Alvaro, my son, now I know how I’ll look when I’m dead.”
“You look as fresh as a daisy, Father,” Don Alvaro answered. “You should have seen yourself a few hours ago—you really did look like a corpse.”
Not only had he looked like a corpse, but he had seen his whole life pass by very quickly, as if in a movie. The founder, says Don Alvaro, told him that in that moment in which he saw his life pass before him, “he had had time to ask God’s forgiveness for all the things he felt were faults of his, including even some failures in understanding. For example, the founder thought the Lord had once given him to understand that he would die much later. And he begged pardon for this too—for not having understood him.”
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| Our Lady of Montserrat |
“Some days earlier,” Bishop del Portillo says, “Dr. Faelli had prescribed a new type of insulin, indicating that the dosage should be 110 units. As always, I made it my responsibility to give him the injections. I was careful to read closely the leaflet that came with the medicine, and there it said the dosage should be lower than with regular insulin—about a third lower. For this reason, and because the higher doses of insulin greatly worsened the headaches that the Father suffered, I gave him a lower dosage than the doctor had ordered. Nevertheless, the medicine produced an allergic reaction of a kind I had never encountered before. I communicated this to the doctor, but he told me to keep using that insulin” (Alvaro del Portillo, Sum. 478).
(from Andres Vazquez de Prada, The Founder of Opus Dei, vol. III, pp. 172-173.)
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