From Wikipedia:According to tradition, this relic is that part of the True Cross that Saint Helena of Constantinople left in Jerusalem. From there, Saint Turibius of Astorga, Custodian of the Holy Places, took it to the Spanish city of Astorga. When the Moors invaded Spain in 711, the relic was hidden along with others in a fold on Mount Viorna in the Liebana Valley, next to St. Turibius' relics. Both relics were eventually transferred to the monastery that became immediately an important place to be visited by pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela. Documents dated 1507 state that, "since time immemorial" the Jubilee is celebrated every time the saint's feast-day falls on a Sunday.
Fr Sandoval, chronicler of the Benedictine order, this relic is the "left arm of the Holy Cross. It was sawed and assembled post-mode Cruz, leaving intact the hole was nailed down the hand of Christ". The vertical bar is 635 millimetres (25.0 in) long and the crossbar is 393 millimetres (15.5 in) long. The cross has a thickness of 38 millimetres (1.5 in)[1]. It is the largest preserved relic of the True Cross.
The Wood was embedded in a Gothic silver gilted cross, manufactured by a workshop of Valladolid in 1679. It lies in housing of golden wood in a baroque, domed, early 18th century chapel in the north wall of the church, looked over by an effigy of the chapel's founder, Francisco Gómez de Otero y Cossío (1640-1714), inquisitor of Madrid and archbishop of Santa Fé de Bogotá, who was born locally.
We went inside and could just see the window in the gothic cross, but I for one could not make out any wood.
I found the stories around Saint Beatus (c.730-800) in some ways more interesting and accessible. A monk, theologian and polemicist from around the Picos area. He is not that famous today but his Commentary on the Apocalypse was hugely influential at one time (often referred to just as a 'Beatus'). He took part in the religious disputes of his day, and arguably his writing helped to inspire the early Asturian movements that eventually resulted in the expulsion of the Moors from Spain and its re-establishment as a Christian kingdom. The Wikipedia article is helpful - see here - but the whole story is a complex one, and the details are fascinating. The books about Spain I decried in On Holiday Reading are, to be honest, quite helpful in this regard.
The monastery itself seems set up for far more visitors than we saw. There is a huge car park, and multiple bench seating for a (rather weak) video show. Presumably it is inundated on special feast or holy days, or whenever the Cross is brought out on show.
We spent very little time on the monastery, however. There is a very nice cloister, with a series of images from Beatus's Apocalypse, which is cool and restful, and the church associated with the monastery is worth popping into for a look (and a squint at the relics), but we were more interested in the walks around about.
Scattered across the hillside around the monastery there used to be a series of hermitages - tiny dwellings where hermits would be found - now marked by small chapels and other commemorative buildings. Walking up the paths into the hills to look at these, we came across some quite astonishing views of the surrounding mountains and valleys. 
The photograph above doesn't really do justice to the glaringly white patch of snow we spotted in the arms of the distant mountain range.
Nor does this next one really give a sense of how high up we felt we were.
These next few give a sense of one or two of the small chapels commemorating the hermits. At night they are lit up and look quite exotic and surprising from below.
And we were surrounded by butterflies...
No comments:
Post a Comment