Six centuries of Grace contemplate him

PalmIts origins date back six centuries, and throughout this time, it has been a sacred space of reference for the people of Llucmajor and for many other Majorcans. The sanctuary of Gràcia, on Mount Randa, had to be closed to the public due to a landslide and has been able to reopen after improvement works. On June 7, it hosted the first cultural event since its reopening: the concert by Joan Miquel Oliver and Miquel Serra, which opened the Sonsdenit festival. We review the history of Gràcia following the studies of Bartomeu Font Obrador, Francesc Riera and Pere Xamena, Celso Calviño, Joan Clar, and Miquel Grimalt, and with the collaboration of the Llucmajor Municipal Archive.

Gràcia cannot be separated from its surroundings, shared by Llucmajor and Algaida. Randa Mountain is home to the Cura Sanctuary at its summit, while Sant Honorat is located on the Falconera Rock, and below it, the Gràcia Sanctuary. It could well be said that this is the mystical mountain of Mallorca, with a long tradition of hermits seeking peace of mind, among them Ramon Llull himself. Caves and mountains are also part of our legend, as evidenced in a good handful of stories.

It was in what was then a cave known as Aresta that, at the beginning of the 15th century, the minor friar Antoni Caldés, Llucmajorer, and a small group of followers from the convent of San Francisco de Ciudad found spiritual refuge. Their goal was to rigorously put into practice the saint of Assisi's rule of poverty and austerity. There was a small spring that provided the water necessary for the hermits. Caldés was an important figure: he was the confessor of Queen Maria, wife of Alfonso the Magnanimous, and the author of a devotional book, Exercise of the Holy Cross.

At the end of that same 15th century, a chapel was built; the necessary funds for its construction and maintenance were provided by the Llucmajorers. The title of Our Lady of Grace was chosen because she was considered an effective defender against the plague, an epidemic that was ravaging Mallorca and elsewhere at that time. The veneration of Our Lady of Grace by the Llucmajorers is proverbial: a 1908 chronicle notes: "We drink this devotion with our mothers' milk and never forget it." Our Lady of Grace was also invoked in cases of drought.

Wine and oranges for the pilgrims

The priest Miquel Galmés commissioned the artisan Gabriel Moger to chisel the sculpture, made of polychrome wood and in the Gothic style. Currently, it is accompanied by two later, Baroque angels who act as escorts. As early as 1502, it had to be restored. It was done by a painter named Joanot.

However, those were times of constant incursions by the Turks or their Berber allies on the Balearic coast. So much so that in 1543, it was thought most prudent to move the sanctuary's most valuable objects to the Cathedral of Mallorca, where they remained until their return to Gràcia.

The sanctuary's fame as a pilgrimage destination soon spread throughout the rest of Mallorca. There are walks from Santanyí, Algaida, Pollença, and Palma. It was a constant scene of processions and sermons, with the officiants being duly compensated. Of course, it was also necessary to provide food and drink for the faithful who attended. For this reason, Font Obrador records in his History of Llucmajor consignments of wine, oranges, and other provisions to supply the pilgrims. A stable also had to be built.

Visitors, as is customary at pilgrimage sites, have left traces of their devotion in Gràcia.

In 1501, a school was founded in Gràcia. And with that abundance of donations, according to Font Obrador, by 1578 the sanctuary's state of preservation was "deplorable" and threatened with ruin. Managing this was a complication. Honored, he accepted it and dedicated himself body and soul to improving the situation. Of course, he didn't have to pay for it himself. One of the jurors proposed using an existing one, which belonged to the Tauler family, and thus the town would save the expense.

In the first half of the 18th century, work began on a new church—the current one—at the same time as work was being completed on the hostel, intended to accommodate pilgrims, in what had previously been the hermits' cells. It is currently not in use. The fact that Gràcia was built along the cliffs has meant that buildings are, inevitably, beamed. In fact, for the construction of the new temple, gunpowder charges had to be used to break up the rocks that obstructed it.

The construction of a church is a long-term undertaking—read, if you don't want to miss it, The Pillars of the Earth–, and that was no exception. The pulpit wasn't installed until 1827, thus completing the work.

Another visit from a bishop, Pedro Rubio, in 1781, brought new instructions to the sanctuary: the majority of the alms should not be invested in the hostelry, as was done for the comfort of pilgrims, but rather in the decoration of the church. And so it was: Font Obrador considers the paving with which the temple was endowed "to be the most valuable example of Valencian artistic brickwork that we have preserved on the entire island." A thousand gold pieces and a thousand silver pieces were applied to the presbytery, which must have represented a more than considerable expense, since the painter's brother had to make hands and sleeves to collect the debt.

Throughout this time, and up to the present day, Gracia has been under a dual jurisdiction: ecclesiastical, of course, but also that of the Llucmajor authorities. Obviously, chaplains, this was done in agreement with the juries.

Currently, the oratory belongs to the Bishopric of Mallorca, but the adjoining land is municipal, which is why each of the two institutions, religious and civil, have taken charge of their share of the church's last. The faithful are those who over the centuries paid the church's expenses.

Similarly, as Calviño, Clar, and Grimalt tell us, the box in which pilgrims deposited their alms, at the foot of the image of the Virgin, was closed with three nails: one held by the parish priest; another by a representative of the City Council; and the third by the clavario (so-called precisely for this fact, holding the key), who was an 'owner' of the nearby lands. In addition to these two jurisdictions, a third was claimed in 1900 by the Marquis of Zayas—not the famous leader of the Falange, who was four years old at the time, but by his predecessor. That year, the parish priest wrote to the vicar general about his discomfort at the marquis's cattle being taken to graze on the oratory grounds, arguing, upheld by the aristocrat, that they were his. The mayor had to intervene to mediate the dispute.

In April 1908, the Llucmajorers (people from Llucmajor) went in a massive procession to Gràcia, with the aim of presenting the Virgin with a silver crown, which, of course, they had also paid for. This climb, just after Easter, has continued to this day. Even during the traumatic circumstances of the Civil War, it was not stopped. It was a religious celebration, but also a popular one: the people from Llucmajor would bring food and have a kind of picnic on the lands of Gràcia. At one time, the route was made in reverse, carrying the image of the Virgin to the town.

The landslides on the Falconera rock in 2002 already caused the installation of protective nets, in addition to the rehabilitation of the sanctuary. On April 3, 2005, the climb from the town was celebrated again. More recently, the 2020 COVID pandemic disrupted the flow of visitors to Gràcia.

Some time later, another landslide caused by heavy rains affected the municipal land used as a parking lot, forcing the closure of the site, the restriction on visits by prior request, and the repair and consolidation of the esplanade wall. Once the Bishopric had also completed its share of the work, it was able to open to the public. On April 27, the Llucmajorers returned to Gràcia: the space where, for six centuries, spirituality has found its home.