Franco Years
During Franco's rule, Santa Maria de Montserrat was seen as a place of refuge for scholars, artists, politicians and students; Franco's men were often waiting for wanted people a few miles down the road.
From the 1940s onward, Santa Maria de Montserrat was often seen as a symbol of Catalan nationalism. On 27th April 1947, a Mass to celebrate the Enthronment of the Virgin of Montserrat was held, attended by over 100,000 people. At this Mass, prayers were publicly spoken in the Catalan language, in defiance of the government's policies.
In December 1970, 300 Spanish artists and academics held a sit-in protest at the monastery against the death sentences of 16 Basque ETA activists in Burgos; in response police sealed off the monastery. The protesters were eventually removed from the monastery, but their action helped convince the government to commute the death sentences.
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Famous quotes containing the word years:
“We never become really and genuinely our entire and honest selves until we are dead—and not then until we have been dead years and years. People ought to start dead and then they would be honest so much earlier.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)