Cerro Blanco is a hill and historical landmark in the city of Santiago , Chile . This geographic feature rises 89 metres (292 ft) above the surrounding terrain and covers a surface area of 28 hectares (69 acres). It is bordered by Recoleta Avenue on the east, Santos Dumont Avenue on the south and La Unión Street on the north. The latter street separates the hill from the Cementerio General de Santiago . Cerro Blanco (Blanco is Spanish for white) is named so because the white habit used by the Dominicans who were owners of the land where the hill stands during the colonial period.
24-807: Completed in 1840, the Iglesia de la Viñita (Church of the Small Vineyard) is located at the lower southeast flank of Cerro Blanco, which is consecrated to Our Lady of Montserrat . Stones extracted from a quarry on Cerro Blanco, were used in the construction of some historical buildings in Santiago, including the Santo Domingo Church . Cerro Blanco metro station is named for the hill. 33°25′10.65″S 70°38′46.55″W / 33.4196250°S 70.6462639°W / -33.4196250; -70.6462639 This Santiago Metropolitan Region location article
48-567: A child of six years, prisoner; and sent him back to Aragon with Nolasco, who was twenty-five years old, being appointed his tutor. After making a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Montserrat , Nolasco went to Barcelona, where he began to practice various works of charity. Nolasco became concerned with the plight of Christians captured in Moorish raids and decided to establish a religious order to succor these unfortunates. Nolasco began ransoming Christian captives in 1203. In 1218, Raymond of Penyafort started
72-449: A lay confraternity for ransoming slaves from the Moors and Peter became the procurator for this. Peter's plan, was to establish a well-structured and stable redemptive religious order under the patronage of Mary. In 1230, Nolasco became the first Superior and also held the position of Ransomer, the order being concerned with the freeing of Christian prisoners from the Moors. He worked first in
96-433: A paint sealant. The statue was repainted black by successive generations of restorers. A series of tests, including X-rays, revealed the statue's original colour and also showed that the last repainting took place at the turn of the 19th century. After making a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Montserrat around 1203, Peter Nolasco went to Barcelona where he began to practice various works of charity. Nolasco became concerned with
120-767: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Our Lady of Montserrat Our Lady of Montserrat or the Virgin of Montserrat ( Catalan : Mare de Déu de Montserrat ) is a Marian title associated with a statue of the Madonna and Child venerated at the Santa Maria de Montserrat monastery on Montserrat mountain in Catalonia , Spain . She is the patroness saint of Catalonia, an honour she shares with Saint George ( Sant Jordi in Catalan). Miracles have been attributed to
144-623: Is one of Catalonia's two patron saints, together with Sant Jordi (Saint George). The name Montserrat , traditionally abbreviated to Serrat , Rat , Rateta , Tat or Tóna , and also to Montse in recent years, is a popular girl's name in Catalonia. Peter Nolasco Peter Nolasco , O. de M. ( Pere Nolasc in Catalan , Pierre Nolasque in French and Pedro Nolasco in Spanish ; 1189 – 6 May 1256)
168-623: The Romans built a temple to honor the Roman goddess Venus . By one account, the image of the Madonna was moved to Montserrat in 718, to avoid the danger posed by invading Saracens . Legend has it that the Benedictine monks could not move the statue to construct their monastery , choosing to instead build around it. The statue's sanctuary is located at the rear of the chapel, where an altar of gold surrounds
192-594: The French village of Mas-Saintes-Puelles, near the town of Castelnaudary, in the modern department of Aude. A fuller account of his life by Francisco Zumel appeared in 1588 and is the basis for the biography given in the Acta sanctorum. According to Butler, Nolasco followed Simon de Montfort in the war against the Albigensians . In the Battle of Muret , Montfort had defeated and killed King Peter II of Aragon ; taken his son James,
216-511: The Kingdom of Valencia and then in Granada. He made several other journeys to the coasts of Spain, besides a voyage to Algiers. Raymond Nonnatus later succeeded to this position. The order originally attracted young noblemen, whose heritage equipped them to address the matter of ransom practically , and friars who were in holy orders and attended the choir. The knights were to guard the coasts against
240-453: The Saracens but were obliged to choir when not on duty. Nolasco himself was never ordained priest, and the first seven generals or commanders were chosen out of the knights though the friars were always more numerous. The founder required of himself and his followers a special vow in addition to the usual three, to devote their "whole substance and very liberty to the ransoming of slaves", even to
264-590: The Virgin of Montserrat, known as "el Virolai" and sung at noon each day by the Escolania de Montserrat boys' choir , begins with the words: "Rosa d’abril, Morena de la serra..." (Rose of April, dark-skinned lady of the mountain...). Therefore, this virgin is sometimes also known as the "Rosa d'abril". Her feast is kept on April 27. The statue has always been considered one of the most celebrated images in Spain. "La Moreneta"
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#1732852695292288-413: The earth in her right hand. The Child's hand is raised in a formalized and traditional Eastern blessing. In 2001, renovators working for the government observed that the black hands and face of La Moreneta had over the centuries undergone a change in colour. They attribute the change—from a lighter tone to black—either to prolonged exposure to candle smoke or a chemical reaction caused by a varnish used as
312-433: The ever-shifting territorial borders was in danger of capture. Captives were considered war booty. Those not ransomed were sold as slaves. In the lands of Visigothic Spain, both Christian and Islamic societies had become accustomed to the buying and selling of captives. In the thirteenth century, in addition to spices, slaves constituted one of the goods of the flourishing trade between Christian and Moslem ports. Sources for
336-455: The icon, and is now a site of pilgrimage. The 95-cm (38-inch) wooden statue shows evidence of Byzantine conventional and stylized form, and is painted in polychrome . The reliquary statue of Sainte-Foy in Conques (southern France) may have been a model. The art-historical designation for this type of pose is called " Throne of Wisdom ". The body is thin, the face elongated. She holds an orb of
360-547: The members to wear on their and long scapulars his own distinguished arms of Aragon. Nolasco died in 1256 in Barcelona, seven years after having resigned as Superior. According to tradition he died on 25 December, but recent studies of the Royal Archives of Barcelona have indicated that he died on 6 May. Nolasco was canonized by Pope Urban VIII . His festival was appointed by Pope Clement VIII to be kept on January 31, which
384-524: The origins of the Mercedarians are scant, and almost nothing is known of their founder, Peter Nolasco. A narrative developed between the fifteenth and early seventeenth centuries that culminated in Nolasco's canonization as a saint in 1628. The two earliest accounts, those written by the mid-fifteenth-century Mercedarian chroniclers Nadal Gaver and Pedro Cijar, declare the founder, the son of a merchant, to be from
408-595: The plight of Christians captured in Moorish raids and decided to establish the Merecedarians , a religious order to succor these unfortunates. Upon his recovery from battle wounds, Ignatius of Loyola visited the Benedictine monastery of Montserrat (on 25 March 1522), where he laid down his military accoutrements before the image. He then led a period of asceticism before later founding the Society of Jesus . The hymn to
432-572: The point of acting as hostages in order to free others. According to records, the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary for the Ransom of Captives accomplished approximately 70,000 rescues-some 2,700 during the founder's lifetime. The order elected a habit of white, signifying innocence. Some histories claim that Mary provided such guidance during her appearance to Nolasco. An enthusiastic King James authorized
456-624: The region's intermittent wars, was a continuous threat to residents of Catalonia , Languedoc and the other coastal provinces of medieval Christian Europe. Raids by militias, bands, and armies from both sides was an almost annual occurrence. Alfonso VIII's incursions into Andalusia in 1182 are said to have brought him over 2,000 captives and thousands in ransom, while in 1191 the governor of Córdoba, took 3,000 prisoners and 15,000 head of cattle in an attack on Silves. For over six hundred years, these constant armed confrontations produced numerous war prisoners on both sides. Any Christian or Muslim near
480-514: The same image is also displayed in Saint Peter's basilica, previously stored in the Vatican Museums , which was gifted by President of Brazil João Goulart on the papal election of Pope Paul VI in 1963. The image has been on display for papal masses since the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI . The mountain of Montserrat has been of religious significance since pre-Christian times, when
504-614: The statue. Pope Leo XIII granted the image a canonical coronation on 11 September 1881. The image is one of the Black Madonnas of Europe, hence its familiar Catalan name, La Moreneta ("the little dark-skinned one" or "the little dark one"). Believed by some to have been carved in Jerusalem in the early days of the Church , it is more likely a Romanesque sculpture in wood from the late 12th century. An 18th-century polychromed statue of
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#1732852695292528-837: Was a Catholic nobleman known for founding the Royal and Military Order of Our Lady of Mercy of the Redemption of the Captives (the Mercedarians) with approval by Pope Gregory IX on 17 January 1235. Though there is debate about whether Nolasco was born in France or Spain , it is clear that he was in Barcelona when he was a teenager and became part of an army fighting the Moors in the Iberian Peninsula and
552-514: Was appointed tutor to the young king, James I of Aragon . Between the eighth and the fifteenth centuries, medieval Europe was in a state of intermittent warfare between the Christian kingdoms of southern Europe and the Muslim polities of North Africa, Southern France, Sicily and portions of Spain. According to James W. Brodman, the threat of capture, whether by pirates or coastal raiders or during one of
576-622: Was later moved to 28 January, when the former date was assigned to the liturgical celebration of John Bosco (see General Roman Calendar as in 1954 ). He is presently inscribed in the Roman Martyrology , the official list of saints, on 6 May, the day of his death. The order spread throughout most of Spain and was closely associated with the "Reconquista" of the southern provinces under Ferdinand and Isabella. The order flourished in France, England, Germany, Portugal, and Spain. From Spain, it provided
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