This month’s extract of ‘Highly Holy’ is also taken from Chapter Three and focusses on the Virgin sites and pilgrimage shrines of the Conflent/Cerdagne region (Pyrenees-Orientales), a borderland area which, although lying inside France, still maintains a sense of Catalan identity. Its geography ranges from mountains to foothills and coastal cliffs; perched and nestled among these are a wide variety of chapels, churches and monasteries which have served the laity for centuries.
Extract II from Chapter Three, Sacred Trails and Marian Tales’
The Abbey of Saint-Martin du Canigou is perched above the village of Casteil in the Canigou Massif and represents one of the first examples of Romanesque architecture in the Roussillon. Built at the request of Count Guifred II in the late tenth century,[1] the initial church was consecrated in 1009 and dedicated to the Virgin Mary, Saint Martin and Saint Michael. The lower church was the first to be consecrated and was dedicated to the Virgin, with the upper church built between 1010 and 1020 and dedicated to Saints Michael and Martin. When the monastery was endowed with the relics of Saint Gaudéric de Viéville a few years later, it was in the upper church that a small side chapel was built to house these relics for veneration and display. The Abbey’s high point was brief, being largely within Count Guifred II’s own lifetime, however the relics of Saint Gaudéric still attracted a sizeable following and donations from locals as well as those pilgrims passing through the Canigou corridor before crossing one of the ports of the Pyrenees. During the twelfth century, it became attached to the nearby Abbey of Lagrasse in the Aude but, due to mismanagement and a papal arbitration, it quickly sank into decline, before being seriously damaged on the 2nd February 1428 by the ‘Candlemas earthquake’, an event which proved devastating for the abbey as well as much of Catalonia and Roussillon, with aftershocks lasting over a year.[2] Reconstruction of the damaged buildings and bell tower lasted for many decades due to poor funding, with the abbey finally secularised by Louis XVI in 1782. During the French Revolution, the last monks residing in the abbey were expelled and the monastic buildings closed, shortly after being transformed into stone quarries for the locals, with several nearby farmhouses still bearing evidence of using robbed-out stonework from the abbey. The abbey remained dilapidated and unused until the dawn of the twentieth century, when the Bishop of Perpignan, Monseigneur de Carsalade de Pont, commissioned its rebuilding and organised an annual pilgrimage to be held on Saint Martin’s day, the 11th of November, both as a tribute to the abbey but also as a method of rallying local identity, for in this region the sense of being Catalan rather than French still holds significant sway.
In 1902, this prelate and his ‘faithful’ from all the Catalan country, in Spain as well as France, made the Fête de Saint Martin (11th November) memorable. To give a poetic and sentimental importance to this occasion the bishop invited the ‘Consistoire’ of the ‘Jeux Floraux’ of Barcelona to hold their forty-fourth celebration here at the same time.
On a golden November sunlit day, amid the ring of mountains all resplendent with a brilliant autumn verdure, this grandest of all Fêtes de St. Martin was held. In the midst of the throne were the Bishop of Perpignan in his pontifical robes, and the mitred Abbé de la Trappe – a venerable old monk with snowy beard and vestments. At the head of the procession floated the reconstituted banner of the Comte Guifred, bearing the inscription ‘Guifre par la gracia de Dieu Comte de Cerdanya y de Conflent’. The local clergy from all over Roussillon and Catalonia were in line, and thousands of lay pilgrims besides. At the church, when the procession finally arrived, was celebrated a Pontifical Mass. At the conclusion of this religious celebration the Catalans of Barcelona took possession of the old basilica and the ‘fête littéraire’ commenced. The emotions throughout both celebrations was profound, and at the end there broke out seemingly interminable applause and shouts of ‘Vive la Catalogne!’, ‘Vive le Roussillon!’, ‘Vive Barcelona!’ and ‘Vive Perpignan!’.[3]
The abbey of Saint-Michel de Cuxa has already been discussed in Chapter One with regard to its architectural importance for the Romanesque in Conflent, and thus only a brief reminder of its history is needed here before passing on to the pilgrim presence. Founded in 840 at the head of the Tet valley, the original monastery was destroyed by flooding in 878 and then re-founded in Cuixa in 879 on the site of a minor community of Cenobites dedicated to Saint Germanus. The abbey was placed under the protection of the Count of Cerdanya and Conflent, with a new church dedicated to Saint Michael built in 940, which was expanded in 956 and then 974. In 978 the then Doge of Venice, Pietro I Orseolo, fled to the abbey under the cover of darkness to become a monk, together with the ascetic wanderer Romuald[4] and his companion Marinus, who founded a hermitage adjacent to the abbey. Despite the Conflent passing between the Crown of Aragon, the County of Barcelona, the Kingdom of Majorca, the Principality of Catalonia, the extended territory of the Iberian Caliphate, Habsburg Spain and the French monarchy, it continued to thrive due to its prodigious amount of parishes under its control. This continued up until the French Revolution when the lands were confiscated and the abbey was nationalised and sold, with the clergy evicted and the buildings falling into disrepair. In 1919, the abbey was re-founded and restored by the Cistercians, and transferred to Benedictine control in 1965.[5]
The abbey’s historical attraction for pilgrims has relied on two factors. The first is its location, being sited near the popular thoroughfares from the coast towards the Pyrenean passes which allowed access into Spain towards Santiago de Compostela. The other aspect was its collection of relics and image of the Virgin. The crypt of the abbey’s church is dedicated to its fourteenth-century Romanesque sculpture of Notre-Dame de la Crèche, while the church possesses a large rotunda of several levels dedicated to the Virgin Mary, ‘possibly in reference to the Rotunda of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’.[6] In terms of relics, prior to their transfer to other, safer locations or looting during the French revolution, the monastery held a number of valuable reliquaries and sarcophagi. These contained the partial or full relics of Saint Orseolo (the former Doge of Venice), Saint Valentine, Saint Nazaire, Saint Gaudéric and an alleged sliver of the Holy Cross. The enlargement of the church’s apses and the nave by Abbot Olba de Besalú in the eleventh century may have been influenced by an increasing circulation by pilgrims who were keen to pay devotions and make donations to these relics, displayed in side chapels, as well as the image of Notre-Dame de la Crèche in the crypt.[7]
Further down the coast towards the border with Catalonia is the coastal port of Coullioure, where the hermitage and chapel of Notre-Dame de Consolation stands on a plateau above the town, looking down onto the cove and out towards the Mediterranean Sea. The area has a multitude of springs, the most famous being the Douy spring (from which the Douy river flows down to Coullioure), and some suggest prompted sailors to erect a temple first to Neptune and then Poseidon on this site. However, archaeological evidence for this theory remains elusive as overlain by the chapel structure. The origins of the chapel are unclear, with some sources claiming it was built in the twelfth century by Dominican monks, however the first mention of a Virgin cult at this location appears in 1496 when ‘Maria de Consolacio’ is mentioned. There does not appear to be a legend attached to the discovery of the Virgin image. In 1549, the chapel is described as a capella heremitana, a ‘hermit chapel’, indicating that some observantines would have resided there from that period and acted as caretakers for the chapel. This is noteworthy as it is in the seventeenth century that hermitages become widely popular, with many chapels across the Pyrenees and Europe in general having annexes built to accommodate resident hermits, thus Notre-Dame de Consolation can be seen as an early adopter of this practise. In Roussillon, hermits were often consulted by local inhabitants on spiritual and moral problems, and the presence of a hermit at the chapel would have increased both visitations and donations to the site. As with so many other chapels and churches, the French Revolution instigated the sale of the site as State property; as to who bought the chapel, the historical record is silent. However, in 1805 the site was reopened and a new hermit took up residence. According to local legend he was a layman and so, rather than wearing a habit as had been customary for the previous generations of hermits, he dressed in traditional lay Catalan clothes, a practise which was continued by each subsequent hermit at the site until 1950 when the practise of resident hermits ended. The sanctuary was restored in 1811 and in 1975. It contains many examples of ex-votos from the seventeenth century as well as two side chapels, one dedicated to Saint Ferréol,[8] and the other to the Crucifix.[9] A pilgrimage takes place on both the 15th August and on the Nativity of the Virgin, the 8th September. The traveller Joseph-Antoine Cervini provides an extensive description of the September celebrations in the early nineteenth century.
We were going to enjoy once again the original and charming spectacle of the Catalan dance on the occasion of the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin, celebrated for two days by the inhabitants of the town and the surrounding area, but more particularly unemployed on that day, and made more pompous by the influx of foreigners. It is on the top of one of the longitudinal valleys, which the Albères form as they descend towards the Mediterranean, that the hermitage is situated. The hillside that one climbs to get there is one of the most abundant in this type of vines from which one obtains this wine so hot and so smoky which, stripped by old age, takes on the colour of a golden yellow, and which is so well known to gourmets under the name of ‘rancio du Roussillon’. While we were walking along the path, traced on the eastern slope of the mountain and in the middle of these vineyards whose color tired our eyes by its continuous uniformity, we turned around at every moment, and the vast expanse of the sea, the view of the bell tower of the church of Saint-Vincent, the glance of the houses of Collioure grouped picturesquely in the pyramidal form, and the aspect of the fort which crowns them with its old bastions, made us forget the fatigue of the road and the sad monotony of these evergreen vines. Besides, the moving and animated scenes of the various bands which preceded us, or followed us in a row, could not leave the least room for boredom. They were well-to-do farmers, or rich farmers, who, at the head of their numerous families, advanced accompanied by their servants, laden with provisions: they were fishermen who had rushed from the many bays which cut the coast from Cape Bearn to Cape Pineda in Spain, and who, alert and joyful, rushed with a rapid step, bringing in baskets the food which they were going to put in common and share among themselves: it was the mixture of people of all ages, sexes, and conditions, in a hurry to arrive, in order to secure one of the kitchens which can be hired on the spot, to prepare the meats which they had brought with them in the stew. Several Spaniards were mingled in this crowd of pilgrims and curious people; we recognized them by the large hat which covered their heads, or by the black net which wrapped their hair; They had scarlet cloth jackets lined with black velvet and decorated with the same material at the elbows, forearms, pockets and collar; the rest of their costume was similar to that of the inhabitants of the coast of the department; several of these foreigners were even only noticed by their folded coats and carelessly thrown over their shoulders. A large number of other individuals of the class of the people of the neighbouring communes, formed groups resting along the windings of the path that we followed, and on the banks of the stream maintained by the various trickles of water that flow from the surrounding heights; they were distinguished by their long scarlet caps falling on their shoulders, by the belt of the same colour, the velvet pants and jacket, and by their shoes called in the country espardenyas and which quite resemble the espadrilles of the inhabitants of the central Pyrenees.
Arriving on the terrace from which we suddenly and for the first time see the Hermitage, we find even more numerous groups, seated on the sides and under the beautiful elms which surround it. Several, others scattered above the esplanade, for want of having found space in the surrounding buildings, are busy setting up their kitchen in the open air; by means of a few stones laid in the fields, they form the hearth on which they place their pots. After visiting the church of the Hermitage, very simple in its construction, but whose high altar was quite well decorated, we followed the crowd which rushed hastily and in tumult towards the lower plateau where the juglas or jutglas, that is to say jugglers, began to make heard the sharp and nasal sound of the oboes, and to swell the bagpipe, called the bag of gemechs, that is to say the bag of moans; the piercing flageolet dominated this noisy melody whose movement was marked by the repeated blows of the tambourine. As soon as we arrived on this plateau, we saw the young people come forward and take each other by the hand, to form a sort of chain in a circle broken by the two leaders of the dance who were at the two ends. Obeying a rhythm more serious and severe than the amusement they were about to indulge in seemed to require, these young people performed a sort of monotonous swinging while taking a few steps, sometimes to the right, sometimes to the opposite side; the young girls, as if to attract their attention, came to place themselves in the centre of this circle, and from then on they were invited to the ball which followed this preparatory dance, called the contrapas, and which entirely reminded us of the Romeika of the Greeks. The ball contrasts as much as possible with the heavy and always the same pace of the contrapas; this dance is at the same time more lively, more cheerful and much more expressive; one would say the putting into action of a feeling of mutual intelligence between two hearts well in love; it is love with its phases and in its gradations; it is the painting of its whims, its fights, its deceptive traps. Here is how it is performed:
As soon as the cavalier has led his lady into the circle, he places himself opposite her at a certain distance. Immediately and forming steps and gambols, he advances on his dancer with animated gestures. The woman flees, retreats in a circle without taking a single step, and with her arms crossed on her belt, or her hands in her apron pockets and her head bent, she slides limply on tiptoe. A few sometimes stir, during the short duration of this position. In the middle of the ball some of the dancers alone and with a triple rush remove their dancers; they support them as if seated on the hand but these must second their skill by springing themselves appropriately. To this end, as soon as they have made an effort; at the same moment the dancer leaves the left hand of his dancer, makes a seat for her in the air with his right hand, supports her in front in balance with his left, pirouettes and turns on himself before afterwards they change roles, and it is then the woman who follows the dancer fleeing in turn in front of her; with a hurried step she pursues him and soon catches up with him; but often the cavalier, with a jump passes his right leg over the head of his dancer, avoids her, escapes her and then retraces his steps to begin his pursuit again. This game which lasts for a few moments is interrupted by the alternating change of dancer and dancer, a change which continues until several couples have gathered in a circle, and the ladies resting their hands on the shoulders of the cavaliers who take them under the arms, are by them lifted and supported in the air during the climax of the music which lasts a few seconds. It is a piquant and very pleasant picture that these women thus carried away at the same time, dominating the spectators to whose cheers they take it upon themselves, or else they place them on their shoulders. The young men recognized as strong enough, or rather skilful enough to succeed in this two-step, are generally the favourites and the favourites of the dancers; their left hand on the right of the rider, they stiffen their arm and leaning with the other on the shoulder of the dancer they give themselves momentum, and the latter can then raise them lightly and without putting it on the ground. As soon as the three different airs which compose each ball are played, new groups are formed, replace the first ones, and the dance thus does not suffer any interruption.
These are the principal figures of this dance, such as we have just described them; but it cannot give a just idea of the numerous concourses of persons assembled in the vicinity of the chapel, nor represent the interesting variety of episodes which such a gathering offered all around. First there was the interruption of the dance occasioned by the third and last stroke of the bell which called the pilgrims to mass, then as eager to enter the church as they had been, a few moments before, to run to the ball. The mass was not yet entirely over when with the same ardour some went again towards the place of the dance, while others ran to the tables set for the meal.
What a spectacle at once picturesque and interesting was this numerous assembly in the open air, this family feast and these various scattered groups which the most perfect harmony and the same gaiety seemed to unite! the feeling of pleasure that it made us experience equalled the delight that we had felt at the sight of the dance. This picture, moreover, was entirely new to us; it seemed to us to represent a halt of a nomadic population preparing to draw, from a common meal, the strength necessary to support the fatigues of a long journey. The illusion would have been complete if the extreme difference of the costumes, and the inequality of the good cheer, had not reminded us that those who formed this gathering already knew the social distinctions, and the rank and advantages that wealth and the favours of fortune dispense with. The tables covered with numerous dishes, containing all sorts of dishes, pastries and fruits, awaited the rich farmers, who on this occasion display the greatest luxury, and seek by profusion, rather than by delicacy, to surpass one another. The simple tablecloth spread in the shade of the neighbouring elm tree was surrounded by the craftsman’s family, who were content with their modest stew and household jam. As for the fishermen and the common people accustomed to braving the heat of the southern sun, they took shelter at the first available place, and on the ground or lawn that served as a table and seat, they appeased their appetite, either with charcuterie or with sardines salted on the coast. The wine flows everywhere; a bulb with a wide belly and a narrow neck from which a thin, long and curved pipe detaches, passes and repasses ceaselessly from hand to hand; soon emptied it is soon filled again in the immense demijohn which is always nearby, but which is placed as much as possible out of the sun. It is curious to see the manner and skill with which the villagers of Roussillon, and of several other parts of the Pyrenees, use this ampoule, by making the liquor gush from afar into their half-open mouths, which falls in a thin stream, and of which they do not lose a single drop. This way of drinking at the regale is not unpleasant either for the guests or for the spectators, and in this it far surpasses the use of pewter beer pots by the English and the Dutch; drinking cups or glasses are almost unknown among the lower class and the inhabitants of the mountains. Independently of the attraction added to the Hermitage of Consolation by the prodigious crowds brought there by the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin, this place has a charm of its own, and which is guaranteed forever by the magic of its situation, the limpidity of its waters, and particularly the rustic amenity of the esplanade in the middle of which one discovers it. Whatever the time of year when the traveller finds himself in the region, like us he will applaud himself for having visited it, like us he will feel the regret of leaving it. It was only after having spent the greater part of the day there that we went down to Collioure.[10]
Further inland, close to Cuxa, the hermitage of Notre-Dame in Font-Romeu (Cerdagne) has been a popular place of pilgrimage since the twelfth century and possibly earlier. Within the chapel, a painting is dated to 1113, however there are numerous springs in the area which have a long-standing reputation for healing. A legend which is not unfamiliar surrounds the discovery of the Virgin image which stands within the chapel. A herd of oxen used to graze on the rugged mountain of Odeilló, where only barns of sheds offered any shelter, and they would often drink from the spring on which the chapel’s altar now stands. One day, the herdsman saw that his bull took more interest than usual in the spring, trampling and sniffing at the source. The herder brought the unruly bull back to the herd several times but each time the animal would return to paw the earth where the spring emerged from the ground. Eventually the impatient oxherd was about to beat the animal when he saw that, where the bull had been sniffing and pawing with its hooves, a cleft in the rock could be seen and, within that cleft, the head of a wooden statue was just visible. The oxherd dropped his stick and reproached himself for being about to inflict violence upon the innocent animal. Removing the statue, for it was a wooden image of the Virgin, he carried the Madonna to the side of the spring and rushed down to the parish of Odeilló, to spread the news. A procession was hastily organised by the village priest and all the villagers accompanied the oxherd back to the spring, where the bull was standing guard over the figurine. The villagers of Odeilló hastily built an oratory to house the image on the spot where the spring came out of the earth, located where the high altar stands today, and subsequently they raised funds for a more substantial chapel. Early on, the image was removed to the church of Saint Martin, down in Odeilló, and taken back to the chapel in a great procession on Trinity Sunday, where she remained until the Nativity of the Virgin (September 8th), before being taken back down the mountain to Odeilló. This tradition has continued to today, with the Virgin never being allowed to ‘spend winter on the mountain’ and also, more practically, coinciding with the timing of transhumance, when the livestock are brought up to the high pastures for the Summer and then brought down to the lower pastures before Autumn begins. There is a popular local legend which ties the name ‘Font Romeu’ to this event, with Font being the Catalan word for ‘fountain’ and Romeu referring to the name of the oxherd, however it is also suggested that Romeu was a term used to refer to pilgrims making their way to Rome, which then became extended to encompass any pilgrim, thus ‘Font-Romeu’ could be ‘the fountain of the pilgrims’.[11]
The twelfth-century chapel was entirely remodelled in 1686, being enlarged and extended to feature a courtyard and a larger chapel, in which a ‘camaril’houses the statue of the Virgin.[12] The statue itself is twelfth-century, made of gilded wood and represents the Virgin seated, holding a bouquet in her right hand and the infant Jesus on her knees. Her back is hollow, and it is thought that this was done to make her lighter and thus easier to carry during the processions. In the eighteenth century, a pool was built around the fountain, which funnels the spring water from its source under the high altar to the courtyard, and a great number of ex-votos can be seen in the chapel and around the fountain. After circulating the fountain and pool three times whilst reciting the rosary, pilgrims can immerse themselves in the waters, which have a reputation for general healing, and some are recorded as immersing themselves nine times in order to receive the maximum effect, as well as taking bottles of the water home with them.[13] A number of miracles have been associated with the site, including the curing of three brothers from Prades of measles in 1642, the restoration of health to a cripple in 1646 by bathing nine times in the fountain’s waters, the lifting of paralysis from a lady from Chalabre (Mirepoix) in 1740, the relief of a Dominican prior who fell from a window in 1807, the saving of Odeilló from ‘a contagious breeze’ (possibly cholera) in 1818, the saving of a woman from drowning in 1819 and the lifting of blindness from a child in 1824.[14] A Calvary was also constructed in 1852, three hundred metres from the chapel complex, with the stations placed at intervals at the edge of a grassy path which winds up the hill overlooking the chapel. Some pilgrims process up this path on their knees and at the top stands a small oratory with a statue of the Virgin behind a grill., from which a large panorama of the Cerdagne can be seen. A report by Monsieur Tolra de Bordas describes the scene of the September celebration at the chapel in 1855:
Arriving at the hermitage, the traveller does not fail to enter the chapel and to pay a short visit to the Guardian of these places. Before the morning services, which do not begin until ten o’clock, there is time to take a rest or walk around the chapel. Thus, one can, by leaving the church by the back door and turning right, walk along green platforms, where the pilgrim devoted to Mary regrets seeing frivolous amusements associated with the religious festival; one arrives there slowly by breaking through the crowd of joyful strollers who also circulate on this side, and by walking between two lines of peddlers; this time, it is no longer toys or ribbons, but edibles of all kinds, so that the traveller who goes to Font-Romeu can, without imposing on himself the hassle of transporting food, feed himself properly.
The office of the high mass, we have said, begins at ten o’clock on the day of the great feast of Our Lady of Font-Romeu. An hour in advance, the church is almost entirely filled with women of the country, most of whom keep their places by remaining seated or rather crouching on their heels. During the divine service, the observer placed outside is touched to see this immense crowd that the church cannot contain, unite in intention with those which fills the nave, and imitate, in a profound meditation, all the movements it sees being made, getting up when the inner crowd gets up, kneeling when they kneel, prostrating themselves or beating their chest, and so on. After the Gospel, the priest serving the parish of Odeilló usually goes up to the pulpit, where, after a touching instruction, he cannot neglect to stimulate the generosity of the assistants, whose ranks he does not delay in going along to collect their offerings.
[…] No one will want to leave Font-Romeu without taking with them a joyous souvenir of the church, you will find objects of piety of all kinds which the priest keeps at the disposal of pilgrims. These are blessed rosaries of Saint Bridget, medals (in copper or silver) of Our Lady of Font-Romeu, presenting on their reverse the figure of Saint John the Baptist; small crosses, images, scapulars with the image of the same Virgin; Catalan or Goig[15] hymns which are sung in Her honour;[16] a translation into French verse of the same hymn; ribbons or mides[17] of green, red or blue which can be used to pass around the neck of medals or reliquaries etc. With the high mass over, noon warns this multitude that it is time to open the baskets of provisions, and in the blink of an eye, thousands of place settings are spread out on the grass, in the shade of the mountain pines.[18]
As an aside it is also worth mentioning that just a stone’s throw from Font-Romeu lies the church of Notre-Dame de la Merci in Planès, whose foundation is attached to a very similar legend of discovery, in which a bull was seen to be scratching a patch of land in the mountainous pastures. Upon inspecting the spot which intrigued the bull, villagers discovered a statue of the Virgin Mary buried in the earth for safe-keeping. The church is dated to the eleventh century and is locally known as a Mesquita, or ‘mosque’ in Catalan, allegedly being the location of the tomb of Munuza, a Berber chief. According to an anonymous eighth-century chronicler from Cordoba, Munuza married Lampégie, the daughter of Duke Eudes of Aquitaine at the time when the Cerdagne was under Muslim control. This is almost certainly a flight of fancy on behalf of the chronicler, particularly the detail that, after being widowed, Lampégie was sent to a harem in the East. However, the story gained popularity with Romantic historians of the nineteenth-century as an explanation for the church being locally known as a ‘Mesquita’, the real reasons for which doubtless lie within the turbulent period of Muslim occupation and the Reconquista. Another curious detail is the church’s layout, which is broadly triangular, each side having a semi-circular apse, vaulted in a cul-de-four with an ovoid dome covering the church’s central space. It is thought that the triangular arrangement is a reference to the Trinity, with the circular form of the floor beneath the dome symbolising the Virgin. The statue itself is similar in style to Notre-Dame de Font-Romeu, being thirteenth-century and carved from wood. A local pilgrimage takes place on the 8th September every year.[19]
On Bell-lloc hill, overlooking the current border between the French Cerdagne and the Catalan Cerdanya, the isolated thirteenth-century church of Nostre Senyora de Bell-lloc hosts a Virgin statue which was once regarded as ‘patron and protectress of both Cerdanyas’, a title which waned as a proliferation of more localised sites emerged in the French Cerdagne.[20] The church is first mentioned in a document dating to 1260, which references the restoration of a field to the priest of ‘Santa Maria Bell-lloc’, and in 1265 the will of Bernat de Rigosa stipulates that a farm from the village of Dorres (below the Bell-lloc hill) should be donated as freehold to the church of Bell-lloc in perpetuity. There is some contention as to whether or not the church had a domus hospitalis attached to it before the sixteenth-century, with some arguing that the level and frequency of donations indicates that some manner of hospital is almost certain, making comparisons with other similar examples in the region, whilst others contend that the geographical situation of the church would make it unsuitable for such a purpose. What is certain, however, is that in 1579 a convent of Servite nuns was established next to the church, which was then destroyed during the French Revolution and whose remains can be seen today adjacent to the church.[21]
The church itself shows several phases of reform, especially in the roof of the nave, where the original Romanesque barrel vault was replaced by wooden truces and the apse covered with a quarter-sphere vault. In 1792, the wooden statue of Bell-lloc’s Virgin was transferred to the parish church of Sant Joan de Dorres in order to spare it from Revolutionary destruction. The statue is unusual in that it sits on a seat made from a sheet of wood fixed to a perpendicular panel which acts as a backrest; this arrangement has no parallel in the Cerdanya. She also wears a tunic but no mantle, and there is evidence of a canopy which once possessed an ornate border of painted stones imitating the work of a goldsmith. The Virgin’s head is covered by a veil, her face is elongated and darkened (as is that of the Infant Jesus on her lap) and her extended right hand is disproportionately large. Another remarkable detail about this carving is the tunic, which gives the impression of transparency, making it possible to guess the outline of the Virgin’s legs from the knees down. It is an exotic statue, quite unlike anything else in the region, and it leaves the viewer with a sense of strangeness. The dating on the statue is unsure, with estimates ranging from the tenth to the early twelfth century and there is no surviving legend attached to its discovery or creation. From the village of Dorres below, a street transforms into an unpaved track which leads to the sanctuary. Along this route, a pilgrimage is conducted on the 8th September each year to the hilltop and the chapel.[22]
[1] Count Guifred II of Ceragne (born 970, died 1049) was responsible for the consecration of several churches and monasteries in the region and, after retiring to Saint-Martin du Canigou in 1035 to become a monk, was buried in the Abbey upon his death. He inherited the county of Cerdagne from his father Count Oliba II in 988 after the latter took monastic vows at Monte Cassino (Lazio, Italy), as well as the county of Berga from his brother Oliva when Oliva also became a monk.
[2] See: Banda, E., Correig, A. M., ‘The Catalan Earthquake of February 2, 1428’, Engineering Geology, No. 20, 1984, p. 89 – 97.
[3] Miltoun, Francis, Castles and Chateaux of Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces Including Also Foix, Roussillon and Béarn (Boston: L. C. Page & Company, 1907), pp. 134 – 135.
[4] Romuald (born c. 951, died c. 1025), was the founder of the Camaldolese order and an important figure in the eleventh-century movement of ‘Eremitical Asceticism’. Born in Ravenna, he entered the monastery of Sant Apollinare in Classe after being the second to his father during a duel, however he found the monastic life there to be too lax. He then went to Venice where he studied under the hermit Marinus. It was Romuald who persuaded the Doge of Venice to leave for Cuxa, as the former was suffering remorse for murdering his predecessor. Marinus and Romuald left with him, founding a small hermitage next to the abbey where Romuald lived for a decade, making use of Cuxa’s library. He then spent thirty years wandering Italy, reforming monasteries and hermitages, taking and then giving up the position of Abbot back at Sant Apollinare and eventually founding five hermit cells at Camaldoli. This ssy became the monastery of Fontebuono, the mother-house of the Camaldolese Order. Romuald’s feast day was added to the Tridentine calendar in 1594 on the 19th June, but then changed the following year to the 7th February, the date on which his relics were transferred to Fariano in 1481. In 1969, his feast day was moved back to the day of his death, the 19th June. See: Butler, Alban, The Lives of the Saints: Volume II February (Dublin: James Duffy, 1866).
[5] Kibler, William & Zinn, Grover, (Eds.), Routledge Revivals: Medieval France (1965): An Encyclopedia (London: Taylor & Francis, 2017), p. 844.
[6] Santoro, 2011, p. 202.
[7] Mallet, Géraldine, Églises Romanes Oubliées du Roussillon (Barcelona: Les Presses du Languedoc, 2003) p. 193 – 202.
[8] Saint Ferréol (birth date unknown, died c.303) is a martyr saint, killed by Roman soldiers in the early fourth century. His hagiography alleges that Vienne (as he was originally known) was forcibly enlisted into the Roman army and tried to protect Saint Julien de Brioude, another soldier who converted to Christianity and was killed in 304. For this Vienne was imprisoned and, after successfully escaping and being pursued across the Rhone, he was slaughtered on the banks of the Gier river. Dedications to Saint Ferréol take place across France, with a particular concentration around the Rhone and the South-West of the country. See: Dory, Franck, ‘Saint Ferréol Martyr, de Vienne au Pays Catalan’, Archéo66, Bulletin de l’AAPO, Perpignan, Vol. 27, 2012, p. 81 – 84.
[9] Zantedeschi, Francesca, The Antiquarians of the Nation: Monuments and Language in Nineteenth-Century Roussillon (Leiden: Brill, 2019), pp. 96 – 109.
[10] Cervini, Joseph-Antoine, Voyage Pittoresque dans les Pyrénées Françaises et les Départements Adjacents (Paris: Truettel et Wurtz, 1830), pp. 158 – 160. Translated by the author.
[11] Tolra de Bordas, M., Pèlerinage a Notre-Dame de Font-Romeu (Perpignan: J. B. Alzine, 1855), pp. 36 – 46.
[12] A camaril or a cambril is the Catalan term for a small elevated chamber behind an altar, where an image of special veneration is housed. In the Cerdagne, a great many Catalan terms are still used and the language is frequently still spoken, despite being technically a French territory. Tolra de Bordas’ describes the camaril as being ’16 metres square’ and ‘a magnificent oratory where one feels instinctively drawn to prayer and meditation. There, the Christian, prostrate before the Cross, illuminated only by the glow of a crystal lamp suspended from the vault, and also weakly by the daylight that penetrates through the niche of the Virgin’. Ibid., p 54. Translated by the author.
[13] Ibid., p. 59.
[14] Ibid., pp. 64 – 67.
[15] Goig is a Catalan term for verses made in praise of the Virgin Mary or a saint after the Latin Gaudete meaning ‘joy’.
[16] The goig is provided at the end of Tolra de Borda’s book.
O patrona y advocada (O patron and advocate
De tot lo poble de Deu! Of all the people of God!
Ohiunos, Verge sagrada, Ohiunos, sacred Virgin,
Maria de Font-Romeu. Mary of Font-Romeu.
En una freda montanya In a cold mountain
Del terme de Odeilló, The region of Odeilló,
En la terra de Cerdanya, In the land of Cerdanya,
Als confins de Rosselló The confines of Rosselló
Vos de tots sou venerada You are revered by all
Com digna Mare de Deu; Worthy Mother of God.
Ohiunos, Verge sagrada, Ohiunos, sacred Virgin
Maria de Font-Romeu. Mary of Font-Romeu.)
Ibid., pp. 84. Translated from Catalan by the author. I am unable to find a translation for ‘Ohiunos’ however it occurs in multiple goigs from the Cerdagne/Cerdanya devoted to the Virgin Mary and may therefore be a localised honorific title, glorification, or contraction.
[17] Mides is the plural of mida, a Catalan term for a measure or measurement.
[18]Ibid., pp. 30 – 32. Translated from French by the author.
[19] Langlet, Léon, L’Église Ésotérique de Planès (Pyrénées-Orientales) (Perpignan: Imp. du Midi, 1966).
[20] Sahlins, Peter, Boundaries: The Making of France and Spain in the Pyrenees (Berkley, CA: University of California Press, 2023), p. 260.
[21] The Servite Order, otherwise known as the Order of Servants of Mary (Ordo Servorum Beatae Mariae Virginis) was created in Florence in 1233 as one of the original five mendicant orders of the Roman Catholic Church, later comprising of several branches of friars, nuns, religious sisters and lay groups. Its devotion to the Virgin Mary led the Order to focus on the values of hospitality and compassion, leading it to be in charge of countless hospitals during the Medieval period. In the wake of the Protestant Reformation, many houses were destroyed in Germany but the Order found a great reception in southern France.
[22] Mallet, Géraldine & Roura, André, Eglises Romanes Oubliées du Roussillon (Montpellier: Presses du Languedoc, 2003), p. 245.
Perennial Pyrenees 