Our Lady of Lluc

La Moreneta, patron of Mallorca

Our Lady of Lluc in Catalan Mare de Déu de Lluc, is the Marian patronage of the island of Mallorca and its diocese. Its image, a small size of a brunette Virgin, is venerated in the Monastery of Lluc, in the mountain range of Tramontana, considered the place of pilgrimage par excellence of the island. By the dark color of his face it is popularly known as La Moreneta.

Main data

Central message: on the top of the Majorcan mountain, the Virgin wanted to stay in the place where she was found, and there for centuries she has been hosting a people who go up to meet her.

Tradition and history: a necessary distinction

There are two plans around Lluc that should not be confused.

The tradition tells that, around the year 1250, a child shepherd named Lucas -Lluc in Catalan - son of a Muslim marriage converted to Christianity after the Aragonese conquest, saw a light on the mountain and found on a rock an image of the Virgin. He gave it to the parish priest, who placed it in the church; but the next day the image had returned to the place of the find. The fact was interpreted as the wish of the Virgin to remain there, and a hermitage was raised, origin of the present monastery. It is a venerable account of popular piety, presented by the source itself as legend.

La documented history Instead, it attests to a consolidated Marian sanctuary: a medieval size venerated with growing devotion, its recognition as patron of the island, the canonical coronation and centuries of pilgrimages. The devotion to La Moreneta depends not on the legendary details of the finding, but on the love of a people who go up to the saw to meet their Mother.

History of the sanctuary

The finding and origin of the monastery

According to tradition, the place where little Lluc found the image was pointed out by the Virgin's desire to remain in it. There was first built a small hermitage, germ of the sanctuary that would eventually become the Monastery of Lluc, the first Marian sanctuary of the Balearic Islands. It was so much the devotion of the Mallorcan people that the Virgin of Lluc was soon recognized as the patron of the island, although the historic patron of the ancient Kingdom of Mallorca was the Immaculate Conception.

The imagen of La Moreneta

The image that is being venerated today is a stone size of the 14th century, about 61 centimeters high, representing the Virgin with the Child in arms. His face is dark, color that he had in the 15th century according to documents of the time. It is not the original image that tradition places in the finding of the 13th century, but a piece of the statues produced in Spain in the second half of the 14th century. In 1884, on the occasion of his coronation, he was restored and stripped of the desserts he had worn for centuries; then the right hand of the Virgin was added, pointing to the Child, and the arms of the Child with a book in his hands.

The canonical coronation

The Virgin of Lluc was canonically crowned in 1884being one of the first Marian images of Spain to receive this distinction, after the Virgin of Montserrat (1881). He was followed by advocacy such as the Virgin of the Candelaria of Tenerife (1889) or the Virgin of the Kings of Seville (1904). In 1908, the Mallorcan bishop Pere Campins celebrated the 25th anniversary of the coronation; a great devotee of this Virgin, a statue of her, kneeling and in prayer, rises before the church of the monastery. The memorial feast of the Coronation is held on August 10.

Lluc, meta de peregrinos

The sanctuary is today a living center of pilgrimage. The first Saturday of August is held Marxa des Güell a Lluc a peuin which thousands of people pilgrim the monastery on foot. In 1948 the so-called "Congress of Lluc" was held, which gave way to the pilgrimage of the image by various peoples of the island on the occasion of the Marian Year of 1948- 1949. The size, next to its botanical garden and the monastic set, remains a symbol and open house for the mallorquins.

Spiritual message from Lluc

The devotion to La Moreneta continues to speak with simplicity today:

⛰️ Mary wanted to stay on the mountain. Where she was found, she remained there: a Mother who chooses to be with her own.
👦 God speaks for the little ones. Tradition places the finding in the hands of a child shepherd, humble and new to the faith.
📿 The faith of the people holds the sanctuary. Not the details of legend, but centuries of confident prayer in the saw.
✝️ Mary always takes the Son. He holds the Child in his arms and, with his hand, points out: he never stays for himself.

Prayer to Our Lady of Lluc