Sacromonte

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Sacromonte Abbey in Granada was founded in 1600 on the hill of Valparaiso outside the old city, and is built over catacombs (originally mine workings of Roman date). The slopes of the hill form the traditional gitano quarter of the city; and on the Sunday following the 1st February each year, are the location of the fiesta of San Cecilio, when large crowds gather to celebrate the city's first bishop and Granada's patron saint. The fiesta and Abbey act as key instruments for the preservation, propagation and dissemination of the pious legend of San Cecilio; by which the city of Granada in the 17th Century sought to redefine its historic identity, replacing its Moorish past with fabricated (or re-discovered) accounts of Christian origins.

The legend states that the catacombs are the site of San Cecilio's martyrdom, and the Abbey preserves the claimed relics of Cecilio and eleven other saints - bones, ashes and the oven in which they were believed to have been burned; and also holds the inscribed lead plaques and books that were found with the supposed relics, but which were subsequently officially dismissed as forgeries.

The Morisco, Marrano, and Gitano populations of Granada had all been expelled to other parts of Spain following the Alpujarras revolt of 1568 (except for those few trusted Moriscos who had served in the royal forces, and who were permitted to remain in the old Moorish quarter of Albaicin adjacent to Valparaiso). The foundation of the Abbey, and the associated fiesta, appears to have afforded a degree of protection from the Inquisition for Gitanos, and consequently many resettled in the Sacromonte from the 17th Century onwards, excavating numerous caves in the soft rock of the hillside. In the 19th century these caves became famous for Flamenco music and dancing; and have since become developed as a tourist attraction, and as a centre of Gitano culture.

[edit] The "Lead Books" (Los Plomos del Sacromonte)

Cecilio (Cecilius) has been preserved as the name of the first bishop of Granada (Iliberis) in a surviving 10th Century list, and medieval speculation identified him as a companion of Saint James the Great; but the continuing legend of San Cecilio originates with the discovery in the caves of Sacromonte between 1594 and 1606 of 22 volumes of "lead books" - each consisting of a number of inscribed circular lead leaves, laced together with lead wire, and bound within folded lead covers; together with burned human remains, identified by lead plaques as being those of Cecilio and eleven followers, supposedly martyred under the Emperor Nero. References in the "books" claim that they were inscribed by Arabic-speaking Christians during the Roman period, and deposited with the martyrs' remains.

The "lead books" appeared to be written in a combination of Arabic and Latin, using characters that Morisco scholars claimed to recognise as 'Salomonic' - and which they identified as pre-Islamic Arabic. Many letter forms were uncertain, and the texts themselves were cryptic and obscure - so that the Catholic authorities found themselves entirely reliant on Morisco translators; chief amongst whom were Miguel de Luna and Alonso del Castillo, who by fortunate chance lived in the nearby Albaicin, and who had indeed been instrumental in the rediscovery of some of the books. One complete book has remain undeciphered and untranslated to this day. As reported by the Christian Morisco translators, the books recorded the prophetic and liturgical teachings of the Blessed Virgin Mary, chiefly addressed through Saint Peter; in which she gave instructions for Saint James and Saint Cecelio to be dispatched on a mission to evangelise Spain, stating her love for the Arabic peoples and language of that land, and promising her particular guardianship over the city of Granada. Taken together, the books may be regarded as a supplement to the canonical Acts of the Apostles (and are indeed of similar length), but recording an alternative mission history in which Saint Paul does not appear. The Virgin's words had apparently been delivered in Latin, but were translated and interpreted into Arabic by Cecilio. The texts include an explicit reference to the Counter-reformation formulation of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception: Mariam non comprehendit peccatum originale; but also employ terminology otherwise closer to Islamic formulae: God is One. There is no God but God, and Jesus is the Spirit of God. A consistent theme is to emphasise Arabic as an ancient language of Spain, Arabs in Granada as the first Christians in Spain, and Christianity as the true religion of the Arabs. The form of Christianity presented is such as to be highly acceptable to Catholics in Granada - emphasising the veneration of relics, the cult of the Virgin, and the priority of Granada as a Christian bishopric; but also downplaying some aspects of Christianity that were most repugnant to Muslims, the cult of images, the doctrine of the Trinity, the worship of Jesus as the incarnate Son of God and the use of wine in the Eucharist.

The discovery of the books, and the associated relics, proved to be the occasion of numerous miracles - which confirmed their authenticity in the sight of the local population and of the church authorities in Granada, and attracted royal support from both Philip II and Philip III. Protestant scholars in the Netherlands also took a keen interest; but their characterisation of the lead books as a blatant fabrication only served to discredit dissenting opinions within Catholic Spain by association with heresy. The Vatican remained highly sceptical of the texts, however, and in 1642 succeeded in having the "lead books" sent to Rome; together with an associated ancient parchment which had been discovered in 1588 in a lead box in the tower of a former mosque. A prolonged investigation by the Holy Office in Rome concluded, in 1682, that both the parchment and the "lead books" were heretical forgeries, probably perpetrated by Luna and Castillo. Any further discussion of the lead books by Catholics was officially forbidden; although some Spanish scholars continued to maintain the authenticity of the texts through till the 19th century. The lead-books were kept in the Vatican, but eventually returned to Sacromonte in the year 2000. The Church authorities in Granada continue to forbid access, however, on the grounds that the official prohibition remains in force: so that current scholarly study depends on the various (often partial and highly contradictory) transcripts and translations made at the time of the books' discovery, and on some independent decipherments produced by Vatican arabists.

Almost all scholars now concur with the official verdict - and believe that the books are a falsification intended to promote toleration of the language, dress and customs of Christian Moriscos in the face of increasing hostility from the Spanish Inquisition and the Castilian state. If so, this exercise was unsuccessful in its general objective, as between 1609 and 1614 the entire Christian Morisco population of Andalucia - estimated as 250,000 persons - was deported; and, although some were allowed to settle in Italy, most eventually found their way to North Africa or Turkey, where they reverted to Islam. Both del Castillo and de Luna escaped this fate however; as the Archbishop of Granada, Pedro de Castro, ever grateful for the immense increase in the prestige of his see arising from the discovery of the relics of St Cecilio, extended his personal protection to them and their families. Many of the deported Moriscos remained convinced of the books' authenticity however; and transcripts continued to circulate within Tunisia, until this practice was forcibly suppressed by Islamic religious authorities.

The authenticity of the relics (i.e. the bones and ashes of the 12 martyrs) was never officially challenged, and they continue to be venerated in the Abbey that Archbishop Castro built on the spot. Hence the legend has acquired a moral function directly contrary to the intention of its presumed original propagators; far from validating the authentically Spanish identity of Granada's Morisco traditions, the legend has served to sanction and celebrate the supercession of those traditions.

[edit] References:

Kendrick, T. D. St. James in Spain. London: Methuen and Co., 1960.
Hagarty, M. J. Los libros plúmbeos del Sacromonte. Madrid: Editora Nacional, 1980. Reprint. Granada: Editorial Comares, 1998.
Harris, A. K. "Forging History: the Plomos of Granada in Francisco Bermúdez de Pedraza’s Historia eclesiástica," Sixteenth Century Journal XXX:4 (1999): 945-966.
Harvey, L. P. Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005 (A full English translation of one Sacromonte text is included in an appendix).