THE ORDER OF FRIARS MINOR CAPUCHIN IN SANT RAMON

The Grandma at the Capuchins lands, Sant Boi

The Grandma has returned to Barcelona after travelling along the Nile River. She has enjoyed the trip a lot and she must dedicate some days to put her photos and notes in order. It's impossible to choose only one memory of all the travel but she has learnt a lot of new information about mummies.

The Grandma has decided to go to the library to borrow a new book. She has chosen Rosemary Border's Ghost Stories, an interesting book full of stories of ghosts and paranormal activity. She has started reading the first chapter of the book.

After visiting the library, The Grandma has studied two new lesson of her Intermediate Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 15 & 16).

More information: Places & Food and Drink

The Grandma has remembered an old story about the Capuchin Order which has something in common with the Ancient Egypt: mummification. It was a story written by Sylvia Lagarda-Mata and published in her fantastic books Fantasmes de Barcelona (Ghosts of Barcelona) and Misteris de Catalunya per passar por (Mysteries of Catalonia to have fear). The Grandma wants to explain that interesting story...

Old memories of Sant Ramon, 1924

In the moonlit nights, when all the surrounding woods remain silent, you can feel the somorous voices that sing Gregorian songs coming, along the winding path that goes from Sant Boi de Llobregat to the hermitage of Sant Ramon, the summit of Montbaig.

Suddenly, the procession stops on a bend. Barefoot, with its brown habit, the white cord at the waist and the hood covering their faces, the spectral friars move forward until they reach the garden square in front of the hermitage, now in shadows. And as soon as they begin to climb up the large stairway leading up to the front door, they disappear as mysteriously as they have appeared.

Their hesitating and uncertain step reminds us of the resurrectioned mummies...

And maybe that's what they are!

More information: Britannica

From the middle of the 16th century, the Capuchin Order developed a macabre funerary practice that consisted of mummifying the deceased friars. The method became so famous that it even gave its name: to be buried in the way of the Capuchin.

This religious order was born in 1520 in Italy, separated from the Franciscans. The communities were small, ten or twelve members, who lived with simplicity and austerity, preaching the Franciscan spirit of poverty, observing rigorous fastings and penances and taking care of the disadvantaged. His name comes from the long and sharp hood of his habit.

In Catalonia, the Capuchin Order arrived in 1578, by special request of the Consell de Cent. And they established convents in several cities and towns, where they still profess. Under the plant of the old convents of Girona, currently in the Museum of History of the City, and Figueres, now converted into an auditorium, the corpse dryers are still preserved.

Old memories of the old Psychiatric Hospital

The process of conserving the bodies of the deceased, perfected by the years of practice of the monks, consisted of the following: first, the bodies of the deceased brothers were placed in small underground cells called coladors, a kind of vertical niches with some banks of stone where the corpses were sitting, before covering the entrance.

For a couple of years, with the shortage of air and humidity, the bodies were dehydrating naturally, and the internal fluids were escorted by the holes that had been practiced in the banks. After this time, the individual tufts were demolished, the mummified bodies were removed, they were cleaned with vinegar, and they were allowed to dry outdoors.

More information: Capuchins

Finally, they were dressed in their habit and hanged in nearby units, along with other mummified monks. In this way, some macabre exhibition halls were created, gradually becoming one of the most important parts of the architecture of Capuchin convents. There they were contemplated and venerated by their alive brothers, as a reminder of the brevity of life and the need for captivity and humility.

In Sant Boi de Llobregat, the Capuchin Community was soon established: in 1579, they built a convent in the neighborhood of El Molí Nou, which they dedicated to the Visitation of the Virgin. But sixteen years later, for reasons of unhealthiness, the Provincial Government decided to close it. The building passed into the hands of another mendicant order, the Servants of Mary. After the 1835 dissolution, he was occupied by the brothers of Sant Joan de Déu, who established the famous mental health center today known as the Psychiatric Hospital.
 

Perhaps because of this, because they no longer have a room to rest for all eternity, the Capuchin Order of Sant Boi wake up at night, mummified, in the Baix Llobregat county.

In Palermo, Sicily, the Capuchin Order was very famous because of its methods of mummification.

More information: Palermo Catacombs

I was an anthropology major in college, 

and I've had a lifelong fascination 

with Egyptology, mummies, 

and all sorts of bizarre cultural practices.

Tess Gerritsen