Our Lady of Montserrat

High on the saw-toothed mountain of Montserrat, northwest of Barcelona, the Benedictine abbey guards a Romanesque wooden statue of the Virgin seated with the Child on her lap, both with darkened faces. The statue, affectionately called La Moreneta, the little dark one, dates from the twelfth century. According to legend, shepherds found an earlier image in a mountain cave after seeing lights and hearing music, and the shrine grew around it.

Montserrat became one of the great pilgrimage places of Europe. Saint Ignatius of Loyola kept vigil before the Virgin there in 1522, laying down his sword before beginning his new life. Pope Leo XIII declared Our Lady of Montserrat patroness of Catalonia in 1881. The abbey's boys' choir, the Escolania, one of the oldest in Europe, sings daily for pilgrims. Spanish missionaries and settlers carried the devotion to the Americas.

On April 27, Catalans climb to the abbey and sing the Virolai, the Catalan hymn to Our Lady. Pilgrims touch the orb in the Virgin's hand.

In Puerto Rico, Nuestra Señora de la Monserrate is venerated at the sanctuary of Hormigueros, linked to a 16th-century tradition of her protecting a farmer from a bull. She is also honored on Montserrate Hill in Bogotá, Colombia, though that sanctuary is now dedicated to the Fallen Christ.