Allí estaban los santos profetas que habréis visto groseramente
esculpidos en las portadas de piedra de nuestras catedrales; allí las
vírgenes luminosas,[1] que intenta en vano copiar de sus sueños el
pintor en los vidrios de colores de las ojivas; allí los
querubines,[2] con sus largas y flotantes vestidura? y sus nimbos de
oro, como los de las tablas de los altares; allí, en fin, coronada de
estrellas, vestida de luz, rodeada de todas las jerarquías celestes, y
hermosa sobre toda ponderación, Nuestra Señora de Monserrat,[3] la
Madre de Dios, la Reina de los arcángeles, el amparo de los pecadores
y el consuelo de los afligidos.[4]
[Footnote 1: las vírgenes luminosas. _Virgin_ is "one of the titles
and grades given by the church, by which are distinguished the
choirs of sainted women who have preserved their integrity and
purity." _Diccionario Enciclopédico Hispano-Americano_. Compare--
... de humildes y penitentes confesores, y de aquel coro-más
blanco que la nieve, de _vírgenes_ purísimas.
Rivadeneira.
... los estados de los mártires, confesores y _vírgenes_ cantaron
unos los triunfos de los otros.
P. Martín de Roa.
By _luminosas_ is suggested the halo of light that surrounds them,
proceeding from their own sanctity and represented in the
stained-glass windows.]
[Footnote 2: querubines. Read Dante's description of the heavenly
hierarchy in canto XXVIII of the _Paradiso_. See also p. 47, note
1.]
[Footnote 3: Nuestra Señora de Monserrat = 'Our Lady of Montserrat,'
the Virgin as venerated in the famous monastery of this name. "The
monastery owes its foundation to the miraculous image of the Virgin,
the handiwork of Luke the Apostle, which was brought to Barcelona in
the year of our Lord 50, by St. Peter himself. At the time of the
Moorish invasion, in 717, the Goths hid it in the hill, where it
remained until 880, when Some shepherds were attracted to the spot
by heavenly lightd, etc., whereupon Gondemar Bishop of Vique (guided
also by a _sweet smell_) found the image in a cave. Accompanied by
his clergy, the good bishop set out on his return to Manresa
carrying the holy image with him, but on reaching a certain spot the
Virgin obstinately refused to proceed farther; thereupon a small
chapel was built over her, where she remained 160 years. The spot
where the image first refused to move is still marked by a cross
with an appropriate inscription.... A chapel where the image now
rests was founded in 1592, and later opened by Philip II in person."
Ford, _Handbook for Travellers in Spain_. The monastery is one of
the most picturesquely situated in all Christendom. It stands high
up upon the jagged mountain _Mons Serratus_, or Montserrat, which
gives to the monastery its name. See p. 54, note 2.]
[Footnote 4: Compare--
And at that center, with their wings expanded,
More than a thousand jubilant Angels saw I,
Each differing in effolgence and in kind.
I saw there at their sports and at their songs
A Beauty[*] smiling, which the gladness was
Within the eyes of all the other saints;
And if I had in speaking as much wealth
As in imagining, I should not dare
To attempt the smallest part of its delight.
[Footnote *: The Virgin]
_Dante's Paradiso, canto XXXI, Longfellow's Translation._]
Mas allá el paraíso de los justos, más allá el trono donde se asienta
la Virgen Maria.[1] El ánimo de Teobaldo se sobrecogió temeroso, y un
hondo pavor se apoderó de su alma. La eterna soledad, el eterno
silencio viven en aquellas regiones, que conducen al misterioso
santuario del Señor. De cuando en cuando azotaba su frente una ráfaga
de aire, frío como la hoja de un puñal, que crispaba sus cabellos de
horror y penetraba hasta la médula de sus huesos; ráfagas semejantes a
las que anunciaban á los profetas la aproximación del espíritu
divino.[2] Al fin llegó á un punto donde creyó percibir un rumor
sordo, que pudiera compararse al zumbido lejano de un enjambre de
abejas, cuando, en las tardes del otoño, revolotean en derredor de las
últimas flores.
[Footnote 1: Is there confusion here between the Virgin Mary and the
Virgin of Montserrat, or is the throne her ementioned vacant?]
[Footnote 2: Compare "And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great
and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks
before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the
wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: and
after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and
after the fire a still small voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard
it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood
in the entering in of the cave." I Kings, xix, part of verses 11-13.
"And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a
great cloud, and a fire.... And when I saw it, I fell upon my face,
and I heard a voice of one that spake." Ezekiel, i. 4 and 28.]