Historic church gets a facelift

IN THE HILLS of the Central Range, lies a church of rustic beauty and great historical significance.

The Church of Our Lady of Montserrat, located in the village of Tortuga, in the mountains of the Central Range, is almost 127 years old. With its beautiful architecture, stained glass windows and wooden statues, including a Black Virgin Mary, this church is a reminder of the past and a time when things were simpler.

Our Lady of Montserrat was one of three missions established by a group of Capuchin monks, who arrived in Trinidad from Catalonia located in the region of Andalucia, Spain in 1687, to do missionary work. These missions are thought to be the birthplaces of parang.

According to cultural anthropologist Ricardo Rambally, the three founding missions were at Tortuga, San Rafael and Siparia (La Divina Pastora).

“These three places were considered to be the birthplaces of Trinidad parang. The Capuchin monks used music as a means of teaching the gospel to the people,” explained Rambally.

“A monk by the name of Pedro de Gante was teaching Amerindians in Mexico... he was teaching them the mass but he was using the music. When they came here now, they wanted to teach the stories of the gospel by using the music.”

Rambally said these songs are known as “aguinaldos.”

The wooden statue of the Black Virgin of Montserrat is believed to be a replica of a statue of Our Lady in a shrine at Montserrat in Spain (La Moreneta).

It is elaborately decorated in a white gown and clutches a black baby Jesus in its arms. The statue is housed in a room in the church for worship and attracts people from around the country.

The legend behind La Moreneta is that the miraculous image, first known as La Jerosolimitana (the native of Jerusalem), was thought to have been carved in that city during the early days of the church. The image was later moved to Montserrat in 718 AD to protect it from Saracens who were invading at the time.

The image disappeared only to be found more than 150 years later in 890 AD by shepherds who followed a supernatural force to a cave in the mountains. It is not known exactly when the replica was brought to Trinidad and Tobago but the feast of the Black Virgin of Montserrat is celebrated in early September.

The church had been in a state of disrepair for more than a decade. Parishioners held various fundraising ventures for its restoration which was completed in September of 2004 by the group The Friends of Tortuga RC. The restoration included re-installation of the church’s 20 original stained glass windows.

Today, the church is more beautiful than ever. All the old beams have been replaced, the stained glass windows are radiant in the sunshine and the building has been painted and is now cream with green trimming.