#montserrat

Photos: Montserrat visita, Carme Fenoll, Abadia de Montserrat, Biblioteca de Montserrat.

Library of the Montserrat Abbey, Central Catalonia.

The abbey was founded in the 11th century, and since the beginning it was home to manuscripts. In the 12th century, the abbey had its own scriptorium (monks dedicated to copying and illuminating manuscripts), which was very active during the 14th and 15th centuries and exchanged books with the Catalan royal family.

In the year 1499, they also opened their own printing press, still a very recent innovation back then. The library kept growing during the 17th and 18th centuries, becoming one of the most important libraries in Catalonia for the quantity of books they had and their quality. Montserrat Abbey is considered the spiritual heart of Catalonia, and its library couldn't be any less.

But in the year 1811, the Napoleonic troops invaded Catalonia. The French army destroyed the abbey, including the library, and practically all of it was lost to the fire.

Later, the abbey was rebuilt. At the end of the 19th century, they built the new library (the one you can see in this post's photos). In the early 20th century, they worked hard to get books to have a good library once again. In a few years, they went from having 15,000 books to 150,000. This growth was stopped in 1936 because of the Spanish Civil War. They continued growing in the second half of the 20th century, with the aim of having an up-to-date collection. In 1998, they started digitalizing the collection.

Nowadays, the Montserrat Abbey Library has 370,000 books and 30,000 printed sheets, 3,800 Late Medieval books, 400 incunables (books printed before the year 1500), 1,500 manuscripts, 18,000 engravings, 500 historical maps, and every year it grows. It's specialized in Humanities, particularly Ecclesiastical Sciences, World History, Medieval History, and the History of Catalonia and Europe. All their books are accessible on the internet as part of the catalogue of Catalan universities.

OUR LADY OF MONTSERRAT St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City

An 18th-century wooden statue of Our Lady of Montserrat, known as La Moreneta, has accompanied papal celebrations in the Vatican since 2011. Gifted to Paul VI in 1963 by Brazilian President João Goulart, the South American chestnut-wood figure is a copy of the Catalan Virgin. Unlike the original dark-skinned Madonna, this version shows Mary with a fair complexion, richly dressed, holding the Child Jesus with a globe.

Paul VI kept it in his papal apartment, but Benedict XVI later had it placed at major liturgies in St. Peter’s Basilica and Square. For nearly fifteen years, Vatican conservator Stefania Colesanti has cared for the statue, repairing damage and preserving its beauty through innovative restoration methods, including laser cleaning and natural materials.