Visiting Historic Sites
In the city of Zamora we visited the cathedral where a Norbertine bishop is buried –Bernardo Conde y Corral. He was Bishop of Zamora from 1863-1880 and a Council Father at Vatican I. He is buried in the transept, just to the right of the sanctuary beneath one of the earliest Romanesque domes in Spain. It is a beautiful place to be buried!
Eventually, we made our way to Burgos where there is, once again, a beautiful cathedral. While in Burgos we met the widow of a young woman who had done her doctoral studies on the foundation of the Spanish Norbertine Abbey of Santa Maria de la Vid. Teresa died shortly after she earned her doctorate. Her death was tragic for her family as well as for the Norbertine Order for which she had given a great gift by her studies. Brother Terry has made specific efforts to distribute the results of her studies to important academic centers and Norbertine archives.
Our next stop was Lleida (Lay-ee-da) in the state of Catalonia (Cataluña). Barcelona is the capitol city of Catalonia. In Catalonia they speak Catalan, which is by my judgment a combination of Spanish, French, and Italian. Of course, they understand and speak Spanish as well.
While in Lleida, you guessed it, I visited the cathedrals! – the old and the new cathedral. The old one is set on the highest hill overlooking the city. It has a 200 foot high bell tower with a 238 step spiral staircase leading to the top. I climbed it and took some beautiful photos. I stayed up there a long time in order to recuperate before the journey down. While in Lleida we travelled by bus and taxi to visit the old Norbertine Abbey of Santa Maria de Bellpuig de Las Avellanas. Today the Marist community lives there. The layman who is the archivist gave us a 2 hour tour and history of the religious community, the buildings, and local area. As he talked I could almost feel the history and the people. The Marists were very hospitable as they invited us to lunch and then offered us a ride back to Lleida. More to come.
Peace, Fr. Andy