I am sure our Saint Ignatius School friends would be most impressed (and for those who know us well - moderately amused) to hear we embarked upon our own little Ignatius di Loyola pilgrimage across the Catalonian countryside. The path to our pyrenees hideaway traversed two pivotal sites where Ignatius underwent his transformation from roving Basque knight to a pious priest motivated to do good. I might too, if I'd been wounded by a canon and had to spend my days limping about Europe.
Our first stop was at the magnificent Montserrat Monastery perched on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Catalian countryside. Montserrat (which we think must mean serrated mountain) is where Ignatius in 1522 experienced a vision of Mary and Jesus - which cemented his plans to leave his employment as knight and enter the church.
The monastery was swarming with tourists, which may be why we managed to bump into friends from both Adelaide and Edinburgh!! Amazing.
A few more kilometers inland was the town of Manresa (check out the address of the highschool...) where Igantius travelled to after Montserrat. Its large church had a plaza dedicated to him. During his stay in Manresa he spent most of his time praying in a cave - up to 7 hours a day. Apart from the church there's not much else appealing about Manresa - we recommend only a short visit. But back to Ignatius, by 1540 he had written the Jesuit Constitutions and in 1548 the Spiritual Exercises. He died not long after in Rome (1556) of malaria.
Maybe our next visit to Spain will include a visit to his birth place in the Basque country!?
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