Virgin of Montserrat

He did not tell them he was never coming back.

He went first to the Benedictine shrine of Our Lady of Montserrat, high in the mountains outside Barcelona, where a famous Black Madonna sat enthroned in the Abbey Church.

There, on the night of March 24th, 1522, Inigo did something straight out of one of his old chivalric romances.

He kept a vigil of arms.

THE FORGING OF THE WEAPONS A day's journey inland from Barcelona, where the blue waters of the Mediterranean bathe the sunny coast of Spain, stands a tall and rugged mountain, whose peaks are shaped like the sharp edge of a saw.

Montserrat, or the Saw Mountain, it is called by the Spaniards, and on its rocky flanks stands one of the most famous shrines of the Madonna, Our Lady of Montserrat.

The sunset of an early spring evening was tinging the sharp peaks with crimson, as a lonely cavalier rode slowly up the steep mountain road that leads to the sanctuary.

The lonely rider was Ignatius.

Hard to see if you're way in the back, but that's on top of the bed where he was.

And here's an image of Montserrat, Our Lady of Montserrat, an image of Mary, who when Ignatius was going through his conversion.

And Ignatius, you know, like many people, had not lived a righteous life.

He was a soldier, he was a womanizer, very much caught up in all things sensual.