A Jesuit Touchstone, Rendered in Oil

For centuries, Montserrat in Spain has been a pilgrimage destination.

Located high in the mountains not far from Barcelona and known as a destination for its breathtaking sunrise views, the Benedictine monastery also holds a special place in the hearts of members of the Society of Jesus. It’s where the society’s founder, St. Ignatius Loyola, came after suffering a battlefield injury, courtesy a cannonball, and laid down his sword in front of the statue of Our Lady of Montserrat.

The site is captured in a new oil painting that will hang in the Rockhurst Jesuit community’s residence by the Rev. Jose Aponte Bernardy, S.J., adjunct instructor of fine arts. He said the Jesuit community together came up with the subject and chose reference photos. And beneath its layers of paint and its serene landscape, Fr. Aponte said there are layers of meaning.

“It is significant to me,” he said. “I can see how it is a special place for a sanctuary — the mountains invite you to do something different there.”

Having lived in Spain and with Spanish ancestry himself, Fr. Aponte said Montserrat for him will always be connected to the people of Catalonia and Ignatius pilgrimage to Montserrat, to the works of one of his favorite authors, Miguel de Cervantes. Ignatius, like any other knight of the time — including Don Quixote — marked the change in his life by kneeling in front of the Lady (Our Lady of Montserrat) and by the rite of “vela de armas.” As the place where St. Ignatius’ conversion became public, he said Montserrat is also an apt metaphor for rebirth.

“I think Montserrat is just the beginning of that deepening process of dealing with loss and hope,” Fr. Aponte said. “The loss of a kind of lifestyle and embracing another with hope.”

Working in a palette of subdued colors and drawing from his own memories of the way the light shone on the monastery, the large landscape took about six months to complete. Fr. Aponte said the completed work with hang in a common area of the Jesuit residence, and he is considering another work to accompany it.