Chronology of Catholic Dioceses:Notes on the Abbey of Montserrat / Santa Maria de Montserrat

Notes on the Abbey of Montserrat / Santa Maria de Montserrat

This Benedictine Abbey (since 1862 part of the Subiaco Benedictine Congregation) within the present confines of the Archdiocese of Barcelona was founded as a section of the Abbey of Ripoll. It became a Priorate in 1080, an independent Priorate in 1284 and an Abbey i 1409. Its Bull of Exemption was issued by the Anti-Pope Benedict XIII and later (1431) confirmed by Pope Eugene IV. The abbey was closed by the Government in 1835, but reopened 1844. It lost its status as exemt abbey in 1851.

There were several abbeys which were territorially exempt - i.e. jurisdictions of their own right, independent from the diocese surrounding them - in Mediaeval Spain. The abbeys were usually founded in the Medieval Age, and, because the historic conditions, were established in the North of Spain. The exemptions and territorial rights of the abbeys are typically feudal, and often the Papal Bulls merely confirm exemptions already existing, de facto.

The exemptions of (ecclesiastical) jurisdiction were abolished, with some exceptions, by the Concordat of 1851. The remaining were formally abolished by the Bull "Quo diversa" in 1873. But, before, in 1835, the dissolution of Religious Orders had closed the majority of abbeys, and only some of them were re-opened after.

-CT (Information from Bob Hilkens and Francisco Vasquez, with info from Teruel/Tejada)