Mare de Déu del Toro

Patrona de Menorca

The Mare de Déu del Toro, also known as Mare de Déu de Montetoro, is the most venerated Menorca Marian advocation. Its sanctuary crown Mount Toro (El Toro or Montetoro), the highest height of the island, in the municipal term of Es Mercadal. The pious tradition recounts the finding of the image on the top of the mountain thanks to a bull that led some religious to the place, an episode from which the name would derive; it is appropriate to present this story as a devotional legend and not as a documented story. What is settled is the antiquity of veneration at the top and the continued presence of religious communities that attended the sanctuary.

Main data

Origin and history

The Mare de Déu del Toro, also known as Mare de Déu de Montetoro, is the most venerated Menorca Marian advocation. Its sanctuary crown Mount Toro (El Toro or Montetoro), the highest height of the island, in the municipal term of Es Mercadal. The pious tradition recounts the finding of the image on the top of the mountain thanks to a bull that led some religious to the place, an episode from which the name would derive; it is appropriate to present this story as a devotional legend and not as a documented story. What is settled is the antiquity of veneration at the top and the continued presence of religious communities that attended the sanctuary.

The image and the sanctuary

The image is venerated in the Santuari of the Mare of Déu del Toro, on the top of Mount Toro, on Es Mercadal. From its high position the sanctuary dominates the entire island of Menorca, which has strengthened its sense of a spiritual center common to all menorquins. The whole has been attended over the centuries by different religious communities and is now a place of pilgrimage and identity reference of the island.

Sponsorship and coronation

She's a patron of Menorca. On a canonical coronation there is no verifiable data in the sources consulted.

Party and devotion

The devotion to the Virgin of the Bull is common to the entire island, which rises to the mountain on a pilgrimage. The exact date of your main party is not safe from the sources consulted. The sanctuary at the top of Mount Toro is the usual goal of devotees and visitors, and is the heart of Marian Menorcan piety.

Link to the Rosary

In the sources consulted there is no specific link of this advocation to the Rosary, beyond the common prayer of Marian piety in the cults of the sanctuary.