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| Monastery of Santo Toribio de Liébana | |
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| Religion | |
| Affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Status | Monastery |
| Location | |
| Location | Camaleño (Cantabria), Spain |
 Interactive map of Monastery of Santo Toribio de Liébana | |
| Coordinates | 43°9′0″N4°39′14.4″W / 43.15000°N 4.654000°W /43.15000; -4.654000 |
| Architecture | |
| Type | Monastery |
| Style | Romanesque |
| Completed | 12th century |
| Type | Cultural |
| Criteria | ii, iv, vi |
| Designated | 2015(32ndsession) |
| Parent listing | Routes of Santiago de Compostela: Camino Francés and Routes of Northern Spain |
| Reference no. | 669bis-020 |
| Region | Europe and North America |
| Type | Non-movable |
| Criteria | Monument |
| Designated | 11 August 1953 |
| Reference no. | RI-51-0001242 |
| Website | |
| Official Website | |
TheMonastery of Santo Toribio de Liébana is aRoman Catholicmonastery located in the district ofLiébana, nearPotes inCantabria,Spain. Located in theCantabrian Mountains in northern Spain, the monastery is one of the five places in Roman Catholicism, together withRome,Jerusalem,Santiago de Compostela andCaravaca de la Cruz, that has the privilege of issuing perpetualindulgences.
The monastery was founded prior to the 6th century. The monastery holds and venerates part of theLignum Crucis discovered in Jerusalem by SaintHelena of Constantinople, which is claimed to be the largest piece held. Brought from theChurch of the Holy Sepulchre bySaint Turibius of Astorga, the left arm of the True Cross is kept on a gilded silver reliquary. The monastery was initially dedicated toSt. Martin of Tours but its name was changed in the 12th century.
On April 16, 1961, theFranciscan friars, Custodians of the Holy Places, were entrusted with the relic's safekeeping and with the promotion of the devotion to the Holy Cross.
Its origins are obscure, but it was during the reign ofAlfonso I of Asturias, who was repopulating the area around Liébana during the early part of thereconquest of Spain in the mid-8th century. The first reference to the monastery of Turieno with the protection of Saint Turibius was made in 1125. Its foundation is attributed to a 6th-centuryBishop of Palencia calledTuribius of Liébana, who retired with some companions to Liébana to live according to theBenedictine rule. When it was founded, the monastery was first dedicated to SaintMartin of Tours, which name over time was changed to Saint Turibius of Liébana. Probably during the 8th century, the body of another 6th-centurybishop, SaintTuribius of Astorga was moved to the monastery, along with relics which he was believed to have brought from theHoly Land for safekeeping.
The most important of these is that of theWood of theTrue Cross (Lignum Crucis), believed by some Roman Catholics to be the biggest surviving piece of thecross upon whichJesus Christ wascrucified. Because of this, the monastery was an importantpilgrimage centre, and is one of the most important holy sites ofRoman Catholicism inEurope, alongside other notable places such asRome,Santiago de Compostela,Caravaca de la Cruz andAssisi. Themonastery was also where the 8th centurymonkBeatus of Liébana wrote and illustrated his works, such as his Commentary on theApocalypse.
The monastery was originally a royal possession, but it was given byAlfonso VIII of Castile to Count Gómez y Countess Emilia, who then passed it on to the monastery of Oña (Burgos), along with other properties in Liébana and neighbouring provinces. The monastic community ceased to exist after the forced sale of religious land in Spain in 1837, but was replaced in 1961 by a small community ofFriars Minor.
The most important building is thegothic church, whose construction began in 1256, though it has been remodelled several times since. It is built on the site of a pre-Romanesque and aRomanesque building (perhapsAsturian orMozarabic in style). It has the clarity of line and space, and the surrounding decoration that characterises the architecture of San Bernardo. The church is rectangular in plan with threeaisles; a tower at the foot of the central, widest aisle, and three polygonalapses. Its facade is similar to that of the Abbey of the Holy Bodies, thecathedral of Santander. Its doors in the southern wall are Romanesque in style and possibly predate the building inside. The principal door, thePuerta del Perdón (Door of Forgiveness) is only ever opened during each Jubilee Year whenSaint Turibius' day coincides with a Sunday. The cloister was completed in the 17th century.
According to tradition, this relic is part of theTrue Cross that the Empress SaintHelena unearthed in Jerusalem. From there,Saint Turibius of Astorga, Custodian of the Holy Places, took it to the cathedral of his hometown inAstorga, Spain, where he was soon madebishop. When theMoors invaded Spain in 711, the relic was hidden along with others in a fold on Mount Viorna in the Liebana Valley, next to St. Turibius' relics. Both relics were eventually transferred to the monastery that immediately became an important place to be visited by pilgrims on their way toSantiago de Compostela. Documents dated 1507 state that, "since time immemorial" the Jubilee is celebrated every time the saint's feast-day falls on a Sunday.
Fr. Sandoval, chronicler of the Benedictine order, wrote that this relic is the "left arm of the Holy Cross. It was sawed and assembled in the form of a cross, leaving intact the hole where was nailed down the hand of Christ". The vertical bar is 635 millimetres (25.0 in) long and the crossbar is 393 millimetres (15.5 in) long. The cross has a thickness of38 millimetres (1.5 in).[1] It is the largest preserved relic of theTrue Cross.
The wood was embedded in a Gothicsilver gilt cross, manufactured by a workshop of Valladolid in 1679. It lies in a housing of golden wood in abaroque, domed, early 18th-century chapel in the north wall of thechurch, looked over by aneffigy of the chapel's founder, Francisco de Cosío y Otero (1640–1715),Grand Inquisitor of Madrid and laterArchbishop of Bogotá inColombia, who was born locally.
In 1817 Ignacio Ramón de Roda,Bishop of León, went to the monastery and asked permission of theprior of the Benedictine monks to remove a portion of the Cross. Two pieces of wood arranged in the form of a cross in a reliquary were given to Don Joachim and Don Felix Columbus, descendants ofChristopher Columbus, for the chapel of their family castle inAsturias. In 1909 Terry and Mathilde Boal inherited and imported to their American estate the chapel of the Columbus family, including an admiral's desk that belonged to the famous explorer himself. They brought from Spain toBoalsburg,Pennsylvania, the entrance door and the whole interior of the Columbus Chapel with the relic of the True Cross.[2]
In 1958 a scientific investigation carried out by Madrid's Forestry Research Institute concluded that the relic is of a Mediterranean Cypress wood (Cupressus sempervirens), very common in Israel, and could be older than 2,000 years.[1]
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