27 APRIL - OUR MOTHER OF MORENETA (SPAIN)

 The one and only “Mother of Spain,” is a black Madonna who reigns from the lofty heights of Montserrat. 

    The Virgin smiles down from her place of honor above the main Altar of the Basilica of Montserrat. The statue is four feet high and made of wood, blackened from the smoke 

    of innumerable candles which have burned before her through the ages. Our Mother of Moreneta is seated upon a chair and holds her Divine Child who has a fir apple in His left hand. 

    The origin of the statue and the manner in which it first came to a lowly grotto in the mountainside is told by an uninterrupted folklore describing its descent from heaven. 

    The legends date from the ninth century when it is believed the hermits who dwelt in caves kept watch over a tiny Chapel known as Santa Maria de Montserrat. 

    Montserrat, or “Saw-tooth Mountain,” which Our Mother chose for her shrine is believed to have an intrinsic holiness.




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