Virgin of Montserrat Hidden in Andorra for Four Months During 1931 Anticlerical Violence

Father Bernat Juliol, subprior and steward of Montserrat, has documented that the Virgin of Montserrat—known as La Moreneta—spent nearly four months hidden in Andorra in 1931, fleeing anticlerical violence in Barcelona following the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic.

New archival research by Juliol confirms the statue's transfer began earlier than previously detailed. On 13 May 1931, amid convent burnings between 10 and 13 May, Montserrat's council of deans instructed a group of monks to remove the statue from the sanctuary and take it to Andorra. It remained there until 8 August, when the council deemed the danger over and ordered its return. The exact hiding place remains unknown, though Juliol suspects the monks' house on what was then Carrer Estret—now mossèn Guillem Adellach—in Escaldes. "They brought her not just because it was a different country, but because they knew Andorrans would welcome and cherish her," he said.

This episode stemmed from ties forged in 1929, when monks arrived amid Spain's political instability under Primo de Rivera's dictatorship. Fearing another disamortization and loss of life, they established a presence in the Principality. They first bought a house near Sant Pere Màrtir parish church but never lived there. At the Comú's request, they opened Col·legi Nostra Senyora de Meritxell in the current CAEE building, with monks including Fathers Isidor Maria Fonoll, Manel Maria Rosés, and Brother Eladi Maria Martí teaching there. Upstairs housed the school, while the ground floor held a rented garage and monks' quarters.

Plans expanded with the 1933 opening of Hotel Valira as both investment and potential refuge. That May, they designed a vast monastery and boarding school on land near the current Nostra Senyora de Meritxell Hospital in Escaldes, for 56 monks and 80 boarders—capacity for 120 students total. The unsigned blueprints, possibly by Father Celestí Gusi, architect of the hotel, never materialized.

The Spanish Civil War halted everything. Caught off-guard by Franco's coup and anarchist persecution, the monks failed to activate full evacuation plans to Andorra. Of about 100 community members, 23 were killed; monastic life resumed only in 1949. Priority shifted to rebuilding Montserrat, leading to sales of the hotel and college building in 1942. The monks then used a chalet in Fiter i Rossell until 1970, followed by a house in Urbanització Guem in Escaldes, where no permanent community resided but where Father Cebrià Baraut stayed extensively.

Juliol also noted FC Andorra's founding on 15 October 1942 around Col·legi Meritxell by Montserrat monk Enric Graner. He will detail these links in a lecture tonight in La Llacuna titled "Del Llobregat a la Valira: la presència històrica dels monjos de Montserrat a Andorra."

These bonds highlight Andorra's place in Montserrat's millennium of history, marked in 2025 with efforts to share its heritage. The monastery draws 2.5 million visitors yearly, religious and tourist alike. Juliol hopes they "ascend as tourists and descend as pilgrims," and anticipates a papal visit from a pontiff committed to peace and the disadvantaged.