Barcelona mayor meets Poor Clares nuns for last Santa Eulàlia cheese dessert tradition ahead of transfer

Wednesday's traditional Santa Eulàlia visit of the Barcelona mayor and city councilors to the Poor Clares nuns in the Pedralbes monastery had a very different atmosphere following January's news that the Sisters would have to end their residence at the temple after almost 700 years.

Every February 12, coinciding with the day of the patron saint of Barcelona, Santa Eulàlia, mayor Jaume Collboni and councilors visit the nuns and offer them a dozen eggs in exchange for good weather and the order of Saint Claire's secret and traditional Catalan mató fresh cheese dessert. 

Collboni committed to maintaining the tradition in future years, even though the nuns will no longer be living in the monastery, instead inviting them back to the city for the annual feast day from their new residence. 

The nuns have to be transferred to a site near the northern Catalan city of Girona as they are elderly–aged 90, 73, and 66–and there are only three of them, important as the order states that there should be at least five nuns per monastery.

As such, the nuns are leaving against their will, and against the will of the roughly 50 locals from the Sarrià neighborhood who came to demonstrate outside the event. 

In his speech following a choir performance in the monastery, Collboni added that he hoped "that monastic life will return" to the Pedralbes site, that it doesn't have to be a permanent situation, and pointed out that in the 698 years of nuns living in the temple, they have moved out on 25 other occasions. 

After the speeches, all members of the council delegation, along with the nuns and even the demonstrating locals, enjoyed cups of the traditional sweet mató creamy cheese dessert. 

'Pain' and 'support'

Sister Sor Isaura, one of the three nuns still living in the religious facility, expressed to Catalan News her dismay at having to leave the site. 

She said that she and the other Sisters are feeling "a lot of pain to be leaving the monastery, but also a lot of support" from friends as well as the people of Sarrià, many of whom turned out at the monastery on Wednesday morning to voice their support for the nuns to remain in the neighborhood. 

"They’ve done everything possible, letters to the Pope, to the mayor, to the cardinal," Isaura said. 

She is also confident that she will be able to return to Barcelona when the time is right. She explained that her order has received news that two convents of cloistered nuns in Nicaragua have been thrown out of their monasteries, and are now without a home. As there should be at least five nuns to maintain a monastery, there is a possibility that the Sisters from Nicaragua could be moved to Barcelona.

"I’m being transferred to Vilobí but I’m thinking about it as though it were holidays, to see some countryside life," she said, adding that "hope is never lost. They told us they’re fighting to reverse the situation. But I think it might take some time."

Jordi Bosch, president of the Sarrià neighbors association, told Catalan News that the locals feel bad for the nuns: "We’re at a loss about this outcome."

"The locals think this monastery can’t be lost, it has 700 years of history. Its patrimony and tradition are very important," Bosch explained. 

"As neighbors of Sarrià, we want this space to once again be a monastery for Poor Clares, and for the space to be somewhere the city can enjoy, where there is also monastic life," he added.

Good weather

Saint Clare is the patron saint of good weather, which is why many people used to offer eggs to the nuns ahead of special occasions, including their wedding day.

During the last city council visit, authorities asked nuns to pray for rain as Catalonia was in the midst of one of the worst droughts ever recorded.

The Poor Clares nuns will leave the Pedralbes monastery on February 15 after the feast of Santa Eulàlia and the last mass, which took place on February 9.

Poor Clares nuns are organized so that their financial sustainability comes from their work and subsistence, which was difficult to achieve in Barcelona's Monastery of Pedralbes.