May 16--Monasterios Yuso y Suso

Let me give you a whirlwind rundown of today before I have to go to bed.  Firstly...we didn't go hiking today! A little sad, but my knees weren't complaining about the extra break time! Instead, I went running this morning, and although most of this town is pretty gross and trashy, the riverfront is super cute and nice, so I just ran laps around that area :-) I also got on the leaderboards for a couple of segments on Strava!

We were scheduled to go to San Millan and visit some monasteries.  There are two in San Millan: Monasterio Suso (the higher monastery on the mountain) and Monasterio Yuso (the bigger monastery below).  Even though Yuso is bigger and still in use, Suso had cooler stories and history.

We rode a bus up to the Monasterio Suso where a great tour guide gave us a super concise, detailed tour in literally 20 minutes.  The monastery felt more in ruins and ancient than Yuso, but about ten minutes into the tour, all the lights that light up all the points of interest in the monastery just shut off.  Our tour guide kept going with her script for another two minutes before she even acknowledged that anything had changed.  She informed us all that San Millan wouldn't have power for a while because of some construction being done.  So for the rest of the tour, we used phone flashlights which weren't quite the same :D Anyway, there was the sarcophagi of "los siete infantes de Lara"--seven stone graves which held the bodies of seven children.  The story goes that during the conflict between the Moors (who controlled the Iberic peninsula in some capacity for hundreds of years) and Spanish nobles, there was a trap that was laid for seven children of one of the nobles.  They were captured and taken to the Moors who beheaded them and sent their bodies back to their father.  There is a whole legend and song that recount the story in a fantastical sense, but they are based on the actual fact that seven noble children were beheaded and their bodies laid to rest in the Monasterio Suso.  The monastery houses their bodies, but because they became Catholic relics, their heads are now in a different location which, in my opinion, is kind of weird, but I mean, it makes for a cool story...and a cooler resurrection ;)

The OTHER story I found fascinating is about Aurea de San Millan, also known as "la dorada" because her name means gold in Latin, who was an Anchorite.  What is an anchorite, you might ask? Well, let me tell you, but because I'm bad at explaining it, let me use the definition from Wikipedia :): 

Anchorite, or anchoret is someone who, for religious reasons, withdraws from secular society to be able to lead an intensely prayer-oriented, ascetic, or Eucharist-focused life.  While anchorites are frequently considered to be a type of hermit, unlike hermits, they were required to take a vow of stability of place, opting for permanent enclosure in cells often attached to churches.  Also unlike hermits, anchorites were subject to a religious rite of consecration that closely resembled the funeral rite, following which they would be considered dead to the world and a type of living saint.  

This explanation isn't as clear as the tour guide's explanation, SO...are you ready for this? When it says "vow of stability of place," that means she went into a room and was SEALED OFF.  Like, there are no doors to her room.  Usually, anchorites have a window (for food and fresh air), and a place to receive sacrament and hear mass, but other than that, they enter their room--usually accompanied by funeral rights to symbolize the death of their old life and rebirth into a new life--and then are sealed into their room.

So Aurea, at the age of nine, decides she wants to do this, which like, seems highly suspicious to me but it's the Catholic Church soooo...  Again from Wiki:

Aurea Prior Dominic had a narrow anchor hold built for her in the wall of the monastery church with a small window through which she could see the altar, and another to the outside.  The bishop then consecrated her and had her walled into her new cell.  

WALLED INTO HER NEW CELL?! WHAT IS THAT?! Anyway, we could see the window of her room on the outside of the monastery.  She lived in that room until she was 27 when she contracted an illness (not sure how) and died.  Her bones were originally "buried in her cave" but then they became relics some of which remain in the monastery.  Like, the monastery has this big glass box of bones.  Unfortunately because the lights were out when we saw it, I don't have a picture of the box of bones, but believe me, there is this big glass box that is full of bones.  It contains the bodies of peregrinos who died on the Camino de Santiago, but also contains the bones of Aurea. AND THAT WAS JUST THE FIRST MONASTERY!

The other monastery was actually very chill, and we got a personal tour from the Prior. The coolest part of the tour BY FAR was our trip to the library which houses all of these SUPER old books which are, interestingly enough, categorized by size to preserve space in the library.  I learned what "Codices" are today.  The title "Codex" does not denote the content of the book, but instead the process by which it is made.  Back in the day, they didn't really have paper like we have today, right? So instead of paper, they used leather, or cow skin.  But they wanted really thin sheets to write on, right? So instead of cow skin, they used BABY cow skin, but do you know what cows have the thinnest and best skin? BABY COWS THAT AREN'T BORN YET! That's right folks, somehow they didn't have eye glasses or know that they should wash their hands, but they figured out how to stop the gestation of cows so they could use the skin of unborn calves for BOOKS! And at the time, get this, it was CHEAPER than trying to make paper! So yeah, most of the books in this library are written on COW SKIN!

Anyway, on a more spiritual and not super weird/creepy/distrubing note, I did think a lot today about the monks, and the beauty that they created, not only in music but in art, in the books, and in the very texts they wrote.  We have daily prompts for our classes, and the one from today centered around Gonzalo de Berceo, the first monk to write in vernacular Spanish and sign his work:

• How do the works you have read before coming here reflect the environment in this place?
• How did your visit to the monasteries impact your perspective on monastic life?

I think both the writings and visiting the actual monasteries helped me realize more clearly how time, silence, and the Spirit can breed creativity, or maybe, creativity breeds these aspects.

I mean, why was Gonzalo the first to sign his work? Part of it is probably coincidence or maybe it is because he was imitating Paul (from the New Testament) in introducing himself before he continues his writings.  On the other hand, I also think Gonzalo was proud of his writing.  I mean I'M proud of him! He is writing epic poetry in a language that hasn't ever really been used FOR epic poetry in a time when epic poetry isn't in style.  

Too (and I am mostly going off my musical knowledge on the subject of epic poems here), but the only super popular art form at the time that would come close to an epic like the one Gonzalo is writing is the lyrics of troubadour songs.  They are epics, and they are some of the most popular secular music of the time--lyrics about people at court, knightly love, stuff like that and are exclusively in French.  Interestingly, a connection can be made between troubadours and Gonzalo as writers of troubadour songs were mostly in southern France, but during the Christianization of that region, they fled OUT of the South of France.  It would be super interesting to see if Gonzalo may have been influenced by them, but sorry....I'm getting off track.  That isn't the point.   What I'm saying is Gonzalo is writing epics about very religious topics in a language that isn't super popular in the arts at that time.

He was a creative.  He chose a specific style and stuck to it.  He followed all the rules--his poetry is consistent in meter, syllables and theme--but more than that, it is beautiful and clever.  Gonzalo is a creative master, and today in that library, I saw the hands of other artistic masters as well.  Master calligraphers and type designers, painters and visual artists.  I could not believe when the Prior told us that the book with the pictures had been printed and then PAINTED BY HAND by one of the monks! Not only was the typeface in the hand-wrriten books beautiful, but the flourishes of the starting letters, the varying use of color, the details lovingly added in the margins.  

The time and love put into those books was immense with none of that beauty strictly necessary to the messages of the text, but it adds to the reader's experience and creates a beauty that reflects how the thought of the words being written. I know on my mission, I found joy in the smallest of things, but art was my favorite way to unwind and still is to this day.  An hour or two playing violin with my mom, sitting on the floor and practicing guitar, taking a Sunday evening to lose myself in a drawing--those are the times I feel MOST at peace, and I'm sure the monks felt the same way.  When we feel the Spirit, we see beauty more easily.

And although those monks weren't part of our faith, they were still endowed with the sweet spirit of beauty.  I don't know if that came from the manner of living as monks, or if their spirits and way of being led them to the monastery.  Instead of being men who fought and killed and bred and ruled, they created, served, blessed and healed.  My mom and I talked about it today and really, monks gave up a lot in terms of procreation, family and physical pleasures, but they also led these beautiful lives free from the horrors and restraints of the day and society.  That creativity and love was demonstrated today all around us--in the writings of Gonzalo and in the monasteries.

We visited another monastery as well, Monasterio Ayudó.  Not gonna lie, some of these things reminded me of home.  Like, MY home, especially the wooden carved lectern.  As my mom pointed out, we aren't far from the French border, and since most of the furniture in our house is French...

One last thing and then I need to go to bed.  There are caves here in Nájera, but because this town is a little more run down than most, they were locked up and we couldn't see them...but I saw them from afar while on my run this morning.  Looking them up online, they look amazing, but I'm guessing because hoodlums from the area probably go in them pretty often, they just close them to preserve them which I can respect...but is kinda sad considering the biggest joined caverns are right here in Nájera.  Anyway, it's back to hiking tomorrow! Wish me luck!!