Ruinas del Monasterio de San Martín de Albelda

San Martín de Albelda was a Riojan

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whi ...

, whose ruins now lie within the municipal boundaries of Albelda de Iregua. It was an important and advanced cultural centre in Spain and western Europe during the tenth century. The monastery was founded on 5 January 924 by Sancho Garcés I and

Toda Aznárez Toda Aznárez ( Basque: ''Tota Aznar''; d. 15 October 958), known as Toda of Pamplona, was queen of Pamplona by her marriage to Sancho I. She ruled the kingdom as regent during the minority of her son García Sánchez I from 931. She was hersel ...

, monarchs of Navarre, in gratitude for the recent reconquest of

Nájera Nájera () is a small town, former bishopric and now Latin Catholic titular see, former capital of the Kingdom of Navarre, located in the "Rioja Alta" region of La Rioja, northern Spain, on the river Najerilla. Nájera is a stopping point on the F ...

and

Viguera Viguera is a municipality in La Rioja, Spain. It includes the villages Castañares de las Cuevas, El Puente, and Panzares. History The earliest documentary evidence is in the Berber historian Ajbar Machmua, who told that Abd ar-Rahman I recover ...

(923) in conjunction with

Ordoño II of León Ordoño II (c. 873 – June 924, León) was a king of Galicia from 910, and king of Galicia and León from 914 until his death. He was an energetic ruler who submitted the kingdom of Leon to his control and fought successfully against the Mus ...

. The community was founded secundum Benedicti regulam uel id quod a sanctis patribus didicisti'', that is, according to the

Benedictine rule The ''Rule of Saint Benedict'' ( la, Regula Sancti Benedicti) is a book of precepts written in Latin in 516 by St Benedict of Nursia ( AD 480–550) for monks living communally under the authority of an abbot. The spirit of Saint Benedict's Ru ...

. It took its name—''monasterium Albaidense'' or ''Albaildense''—from the Muslim fortress of al-Bayadh (the White), on the site of which it was founded. Its first abbot was named Peter, but on 5 January 925, in a royal privilege granted on the anniversary of its founding, the abbot was Gabellus, suggesting that the monastery had perhaps been attacked during the invasion of Abd ar-Rahman III the previous year.Bishko, 563. The house prospered under the ''

repoblación The ''Repoblación'' (, ; pt, Repovoação, ) was the ninth-century repopulating of a large region between the River Duero and the Cantabrian Mountains, which had been depopulated in the early years of the Reconquista. In the reign of Alfonso ...

'', as it lay on trade routes connecting

Álava Álava ( in Spanish) or Araba (), officially Araba/Álava, is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lordship of Álava, former medieval Catholic bishopric and now Latin titular see. Its c ...

, Castile, and Navarre north of the

Ebro , name_etymology = , image = Zaragoza shel.JPG , image_size = , image_caption = The Ebro River in Zaragoza , map = SpainEbroBasin.png , map_size = , map_caption = The Ebro ...

. In 950 Albelda had two hundred monks when the French bishop Godescalcus, making the first Jacobean pilgrimage known to history, stopped at the monastery in order that his amanuenses could copy the ''De uirginitate beatae Mariae'' of

Ildephonsus of Toledo Ildefonsus or Ildephonsus (rarely ''Ildephoses'' or ''Ildefonse''; Spanish: San Ildefonso; c. 8 December 607 – 23 January 667) was a scholar and theologian who served as the metropolitan Bishop of Toledo for the last decade of his life. His Go ...

. By that time it also possessed one daughter house: San Prudencio de Laturce. In 976 the abbey's scriptorium compiled and illustrated the Codex Albeldensis, a parchment manuscript of 430 folios. It contains the first visual representations of Spanish monarchs (images of Sancho Garcés II, Ramiro Garcés, and

Urraca Fernández Urraca Fernández (died 1007) was queen of León and Navarre as the wife of two kings of León and one king of Navarre between 951 and 994. She acted as regent for her son Gonzalo in the County of Aragon in circa 996-997, and served as co-reg ...

), illustrated within those monarchs' lifetimes, and also the first record of Arabic numerals in western Europe (the numbers 1–9, but not 0, are represented). Besides the Godescalcus' copy of Idelphonsus and the Codex Albeldensis there was the ''Liber Ordinum'' of the Mozarabic rite, copied at San Pedro in 1052. Under the powerful Navarrese monarch Sancho Garcés III, the abbey received the castle of

Clavijo Clavijo is a municipality of the autonomous community of La Rioja (Spain). It is located near the capital, Logroño. , its population was of 276 inhabitants. In 834, according to a 12th-century spurious charter and later traditional records, th ...

and Albelda was made a

diocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associa ...

. The bishops of Albelda made their seat in San Martín between 1033 and 1092. The monastery declined after that. Between 1167 and 1180 it was converted to a

collegiate church In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons: a non-monastic or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, which may be presided over by ...

under the

Rule of Saint Augustine The Rule of Saint Augustine, written about the year 400, is a brief document divided into eight chapters and serves as an outline for religious life lived in community. It is the oldest monastic rule in the Western Church. The rule, developed b ...

. In 1435 it was united to the Concatedral de Santa María de la Redonda through a

bull A bull is an intact (i.e., not castrated) adult male of the species ''Bos taurus'' (cattle). More muscular and aggressive than the females of the same species (i.e., cows), bulls have long been an important symbol in many religions, includin ...

Pope Eugene IV Pope Eugene IV ( la, Eugenius IV; it, Eugenio IV; 1383 – 23 February 1447), born Gabriele Condulmer, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 3 March 1431 to his death in February 1447. Condulmer was a Venetian, and ...

on the advice of Diego López de Zúñiga,

Bishop of Calahorra A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

, in whose diocese Albelda lay.

References

*Bishko, Charles Julian
"Salvus of Albelda and Frontier Monasticism in Tenth-Century Navarre,"
'' Speculum'', 23 (1948), 559–90.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:San Martin de Albelda Monasteries in La Rioja (Spain) Christian monasteries established in the 10th century 10th-century establishments in Spain 10th century in Navarre Religious buildings and structures completed in 924

See also

References

Notes