The prayer most prayed to this day to the patron saint of Catalonia is on an anniversary. Written by the priest Josep Torres i Bages (1846-1916) in 1899, months before being appointed bishop of Vic, the prayer Spiritual Visit to the Mare de Déu de Montserrat was prayed for the first time on April 30, 1899 in the Cathedral from Barcelona. This week marks 125 years since that first edition, an event that has been remembered with a new version set to music by the organist and composer Jordi-Agustí Piqué and presented in the same liturgical setting, the Gothic seo of Barcelona, last Sunday.
One hundred and twenty-five are the same years that the Lliga Espiritual de la Mare de Déu de Montserrat is celebrating, a Catholic confessional group born in response to the criterion that was being imposed at the end of the 19th century by a part of Catalan society that stated that it could not be to be Catholic and Catalan at the same time. A group of young people, coming from Marian congregations and the Unió Catalanista, a Catholic and patriotic entity, came together and commissioned Torres i Bages with a prayer that exemplified what for them were two indissoluble concepts, namely faith and country.
The result was this prayer widely disseminated and used by brothers, devotees and pilgrims of the Virgin of Montserrat. To commemorate this anniversary, the Puig i Cadafalch room of the Montserrat Museum is hosting an exhibition until June 2, curated by the monk and archivist of the monastery, Josep Galobart, which reviews the history of this prayer, which asks in its invocations peace, brotherhood and harmony of the Catalans. “Requests that after 125 years seem very current to me,” said the abbot of Montserrat, Manel Gasch, during the opening of the exhibition.
The content is divided into six areas. The first is dedicated to its author, Josep Torres i Bages, and it exhibits several objects such as the episcopal gloves of the former bishop of Vic, the original autograph manuscript of the Spiritual Visit or the chair in which the official photograph was taken. the new bishop of Vic on the day of his consecration in Montserrat.
In the exhibition we can also see the multiple printed versions that have been made of the Spiritual Visit to the Mare de Déu de Montserrat between the years 1899 and 1999, including special versions such as those published on the occasion of the proclamation of the Republic and of the recovery of Catalan institutions, the festivities for the enthronement of the Holy Image of the Virgin or those published in Cuba, Argentina or Mexico, where many Catalans emigrated after the Civil War.
Another section focuses on the musical versions that have been made to date. Regarding the two commemorative versions composed to celebrate this anniversary by the musician and monk from Montserrat Jordi-Agustí Piqué (a solemn one for four voices and a simpler one for organ and a soloist), Josep Galobart explains that the first musical version was the one he made Father Gregori Maria Sunyol in the 1940s and which was widely disseminated by the Cantorum schools. In 1954, Father Ireneu Segarra made another four-voice version for the choir.
The exhibition also brings together notable documentation on the official recognition by the Church of the text of the Visitation, the founding of the Spiritual League and its statutes.
