A language school seven centuries before tourism
750 years are fulfilled since the foundation of Miramar by Ramon Llull. He did it with the support of James II of Majorca, and the Pope confirmed it in the month of October of 1276
PalmaSeven and a half centuries ago, languages were not learned for tourism, much less to attend to tourists who might show up. No one traveled unless they had no other choice. The Majorcan philosopher Ramon Llull conceived a school to learn Arabic, in order to convert Muslims to Christianity, and thus was born, in the current municipality of Valldemossa, Miramar, a brief experience, but with a lasting imprint. Its foundation was confirmed by a papal bull on October 17, 1276, 750 years ago now.
As Sebastià Garcias Palou observes, we really know very little about that monastery, created as a kind of missionary academy. Neither exactly when it started, nor the detailed curriculum, nor the names of the members of the community except for a couple –Majorcan–, nor what their destination was, nor when or why it closed its doors. Archduke Ludwig Salvator, an admirer of Llull who wanted to recreate the Miramar of the past with his possessions, wrote What I know about Miramar –he could have written What I do not know about Miramar, if he had referred to its origins.
Miramar was a project of Ramon Llull, after that sermon at Sant Francesc in Palma that changed his trajectory forever: he abandoned the mundane life of a knight and decided to dedicate himself to the spread of Christianity. To this end, he conceived a reasoned system, the 'Art', the teaching of which was most likely carried out by him in the classrooms of the monastery.
A text by the ‘Enlightened Doctor’ that was surely used at Miramar was the Book of the Gentile and the Three Wise Men: there are three: a Christian, a Muslim, and a Jew –no, it is not the beginning of a joke–, who express their arguments to a pagan about which of their beliefs is the true one. It is quite similar to The Tale of the Three Rings, by Boccaccio, which is later. It is the metaphor of a rich man, who gives the family ring and two identical copies to his three sons: the conclusion is that God must have granted a ring to each religion, but it is not known which one is the real one. Of course, “Llull considers himself to be in possession of the authentic ring”, as Eusebi Colomer points out.
Ramon Llull understood that it was feasible to convert Muslims to the faith of Christ. After all, they were not so different: together with Christians and Jews, they were part of the three religions ‘of the Book’. Hence the idea of training missionaries, capable of performing that task. And it was obviously essential to learn oriental languages and, specifically, Arabic.
It was not an absolutely original project. The Dominicans, eternal rivals of the Franciscans, had already created a school in the City where Arabic and Hebrew were taught. It does not seem that Llull attended it. He learned Arabic over nine years with a slave, with whom, by the way, things ended fatally: the slave blasphemed, he struck him, then the Muslim attacked him with a knife. He was imprisoned and hanged himself in his cell.
Why thirteen friars?
It is supposed that, of the nearly 250 works that Llull is said to have written –some, lost–, a part of them he would have written in Arabic. Nicolau Roser highly doubts that he acquired such skill to write in this language. The Arabic classes at Miramar were likely taught by a Mallorcan Muslim or by a friar who knew it better.
Everything indicates that Llull presented the project of what was to be Miramar to the King of Mallorca, James II, in Montpellier, the monarch's birthplace and part of his domains, where the king spent a good part of his time –he was rarely in Mallorca. Llull was very clear about what he wanted: that the students should be thirteen Franciscan friars, no more and no less, and that they should receive a complete education there for the mission that awaited them: to preach the Gospel to the infidels and, if necessary, to face martyrdom. A kind of super-agents of Christianity.
Why thirteen, exactly? Anyone would say that this was starting off on the wrong foot, given the reputation this number carries. But, as Garcias Palou observes, thirteen is a very Lullian number. Obviously, it refers to the diners at the 'Last Supper': Jesus Christ and the twelve apostles.
There was a very significant Franciscan tradition in the Mallorcan royal dynasty. The eldest son of James II, another James, renounced the crown to follow in the footsteps of Il Poverello. Two of his siblings, Philip, regent of the kingdom, and Sancha, queen of Naples, were also fervent Franciscans. In any case, James II also favored the Dominicans and the Cistercians. It was convenient to get along with everyone.
The exact date of the founding of Miramar is not known. It seems that, when the project began, James II was not yet king. The confirmation bull of Pope John XXI is later, from October 17, 1276, and refers to his father, James I, who had just died. Initially, it seems that existing buildings were used. The infant, soon to be monarch, committed to contributing five hundred florins each year for the maintenance of the monastery, which must have been a significant amount.
Jaume II acquired the lands, corresponding to the ‘Deià farm’, by exchanging that space, property of the monks of La Real, with another. The Miramar community depended on the Franciscan authority of the Crown of Aragon. It must have been larger than just thirteen, but that was the number of missionary candidates. Llull was its soul. But he could not be its director, because he was a layman, not a friar. Miramar was governed by a guardian, who was part of the community of the thirteen chosen ones. Administrative tasks were handled by a procurator, who perhaps did not belong to the collective of chosen ones, but to the rest of the community.
Llull leaves Miramar
The Majorcan philosopher had wanted the monastery-school to be situated in a secluded place, far from worldly noise: “Between the vineyard and the hayfield,” according to his own words. At Miramar, Llull combined a triple activity: the teaching of his ‘Art’, the writing of his books, and the contemplative life, that is, of prayer and mysticism. According to tradition, he would withdraw to meditate in what is known as “Master Ramon’s cave”.
How long did Llull remain at Miramar before resuming an incessant traveling activity? Garcias Palou calculates a minimum of two and a half years and a maximum of four. He must have left around 1279. His was a significant loss: the monastery was left without the one who had set it in motion.
The internal struggles between the descendants of James I –what those Christmas dinners must have been like for these people!– did not affect the continuity of Miramar. When Alfonso the Liberal, King of Aragon, son of Peter the Great, took the Islands from his uncle James of Majorca, he maintained financial support for the monastery. Just like his brother and successor, James the Just
Ramon Llull never returned to Miramar because, while he wandered the world, that community ceased to exist. The last record dates from 1292. In 1295, Llull recorded its disappearance in the work Desconhort. The Franciscan missionary quarry must have lasted barely seventeen years.
In Desconhort, where he expressed the bitterness over that loss, Ramon the Fool veiledly suggested who or what, or which entity, had brought about the disappearance of the Miramar community. It could not have been James II of Majorca, because at that time the relatives from Barcelona had not yet returned the Islands to him. The distancing between the king and his friend Llull would have been later. It seems more probable that the conflicts among the Franciscans themselves were the cause.
With the kingdom recovered, James II of Mallorca transferred Miramar, now depopulated, to the Cistercians of La Real. Meanwhile, it served as a falconry for his birds of prey. That was a true passion for him: in 1311 he paid for a falcon almost the salary of a viceroy. That was the beginning of a succession of stages in the occupation of Miramar. It was proposed to install the Lullian General Study there, dedicated to the study of Lullian work, which was finally located in Palma. And it also housed, around 1457, the first printing press in Mallorca. At the end of the 19th century, the Archduke bought it, and commemorated the memory of Lull there with a viewpoint and a chapel.
In any case, Lull did not give up. He continued to insist, before the Pope and the Christian monarchs, on the need to erect those schools where evangelizers of Islam could be prepared, following the model of Miramar. In this corner of the Serra de Tramuntana, that dream became a reality. A dream perhaps too brief.
If the project of evangelizing the infidels peacefully and in their own language—which was the origin of the foundation of Miramar—did not work out, Ramon Llull had a plan B: to use weapons, that is, to call for a new crusade. In 1187, Jerusalem had fallen into the hands of the Muslims, having until then been under Christian control. According to Garcias Palou, the purpose was not to conquer Islamic territories, but to allow the free spread of the Gospel there.
That incessant traveler met with popes and monarchs to gain their support for the crusade project. Just like another illustrious bearded figure, Gandalf, uses Aragorn for his plans in The Lord of the Rings, Llull conceived a Rex Bellator, a warrior king, who would lead that enterprise. As good friends as they were with James II of Majorca, it would seem logical that he was his chosen one. But this monarch tended to lose the wars he got involved in. J. N. Hillgarth and Anna Alberni identify that dreamed-of hero with another James, his nephew the Just, King of Aragon. To that crusade, Llull claimed, the Pope himself had to go.
According to Nicolau Roser, the goal of that crusade was not only Jerusalem, but to occupy North Africa, then, just as now, under Islamic rule. Llull's plan was to start, as a bridgehead, with Ceuta. In this, as in so many things, he was a visionary: it was not until 1415 that the Portuguese conquered this strategic stronghold, which later passed into Spanish hands.
Information prepared based on texts by Sebastià Garcias Palou, Nicolau Roser Nebot, Jordi Gayà Estelrich, Armand Llinarès, Maria Barceló Crespí, Josep-David Garrido i Valls, J. Ernest Martínez Ferrando, Miquel A. Casasnovas, Anna Alberni and J. N. Hilgarth, Anthony Bonner, Lola Badia, Xavier Moret, Robert Vinas and Sebastià Trias Mercant