The Sacromonte of Granada, an attempt to integration between the moorish war and the final expulsion

Abstract

In the last years of the reign of Philip II there took place some surprising discoveries in the city of Granada. Together with the supposed relics of apostolic men, lead tablets were found that contained messages which claimend to be revealed by the Blessed Virgin and St. James to two disciples. These tablets contained complex doctrines that pretended to synthesize Christianity and Islam. In these writings arab culture and language were praised as chosen by God, at the time the Catholic monarchy was exalted. The impact of these findings reached beyond national boundaries. Outstandingintellectuals and ecclesiastical figures took part in the disputes concerning their authenticity. Historians have come to attribute these writings to an elite group directed by moorish of high culture. These tablets are seen as a desperate attempt at an islamic ideological reconquest of Christian Granada during the early modern period after the first attempted expulsion of the moors and before their definitive exile. However, the Archbishop of Granada, Pedro de Castro, one of the most influential men in Spain at that time, made the recently discovered tablets into a bastion of popular Christian culture and piety. The eventual result was the foundation of the “Abadía del Sacromonte” that was a sanctuary for the venerated relics as well as a cultural, educational and missionary center dedicated to spreading the popular religiosity born from the discoveries.