{"id":42704,"date":"2026-06-15T10:35:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T08:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/granda.com\/?p=42704"},"modified":"2026-07-10T09:24:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T07:24:37","slug":"corpus-christi-procession-pope-leo-xiv-madrid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/granda.com\/en\/custodia-procesion-corpus-christi-papa-leon-xiv-madrid\/","title":{"rendered":"Corpus Christi Procession in Madrid Led by Pope Leo XIV"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <strong>May 18, 2025<\/strong>, in the Sistine Chapel and among the cardinal electors, <strong>His Holiness Pope Leo XIV<\/strong> He was celebrating Holy Mass to mark the beginning of his pontificate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the moment of consecration, the Holy Father raised the chalice: a piece of <strong>original design that remains classic<\/strong>, on whose gilded cup stood out enamels of a beautiful translucent red color\u2014which in the Spanish tradition of enamelwork was called <strong>rosicler<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The emotion of that moment was twofold for us as we recognized in that chalice the <strong>an unmistakable hallmark of the works from our workshops<\/strong>. The investigation identified the chalice as the one that <strong>The dioceses of Spain presented a gift to His Holiness Pius XI in 1929<\/strong> on the occasion of his golden jubilee as a priest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>GRANDA: More Than a Century Dedicated to Sacred Art in Madrid and Spain<\/strong> for everyone<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>At <a href=\"https:\/\/granda.com\/en\/\">GRANDA<\/a> We are immensely fortunate\u2014and have a great responsibility\u2014to be a company <strong>already more than a century old<\/strong> dedicated to the mission for which it was founded and committed to its original values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ever since <strong>Mr. F\u00e9lix Granda y Buylla<\/strong> devote himself to sacred art in <strong>1891<\/strong>, immediately after his ordination to the priesthood, they have left our Art Workshops <strong>tens of thousands of liturgical works<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our core values are <strong>attention to the liturgy<\/strong>the <strong>service to the Church<\/strong> and the <strong>handcrafted<\/strong>. Over time, many of these works have been forgotten, so it is always a special cause for joy when they resurface and continue to fulfill their liturgical function.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The monstrance chosen by Pope Leo XIV for the Corpus Christi procession in Madrid<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We never imagined that we would see, once again and so soon, a historic work from our Art Workshops in the Pope\u2019s hands <strong>His Holiness Leo XIV<\/strong>. But we were overjoyed to learn that one of the pieces preserved at the <strong>Almudena Cathedral Museum<\/strong> had been the <strong>the monstrance chosen for the Corpus Christi procession in Madrid<\/strong>, during the Pope's first visit to Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The very <strong>The Holy Father led a procession with the Blessed Sacrament<\/strong> in it, thereby lending exceptional historical significance to this piece, which has been preserved for decades in the Madrid cathedral.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"828\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/granda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/custodia-procesion-madrid-828x1024.png\" alt=\"Guard of the Procession in Madrid\" class=\"wp-image-42708\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.8085983071462258;width:475px;height:auto\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/granda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/custodia-procesion-madrid-828x1024.png 828w, https:\/\/granda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/custodia-procesion-madrid-243x300.png 243w, https:\/\/granda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/custodia-procesion-madrid-768x949.png 768w, https:\/\/granda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/custodia-procesion-madrid-1243x1536.png 1243w, https:\/\/granda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/custodia-procesion-madrid-10x12.png 10w, https:\/\/granda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/custodia-procesion-madrid-600x742.png 600w, https:\/\/granda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/custodia-procesion-madrid.png 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 828px) 100vw, 828px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The History of the Monstrance: From the Vallehermoso School to the Almudena Cathedral<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Unlike the chalice of His Holiness Pius XI, the monstrance preserved in the Almudena Cathedral was a <strong>modest piece<\/strong>, created in <strong>1943<\/strong> for the chapel of the Sagrada Familia School in Vallehermoso\u2014which is now the <strong>Teatro de la Abad\u00eda<\/strong> and was then administered by the Madrid Provincial Child Protection Board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those unfamiliar with our company's history might not notice that modesty. This case reveals the care that <strong>Mr. Felix Granda<\/strong> he bestowed upon all liturgical works: even when financial circumstances called for a simpler design, all the works always had a <strong>sufficient quality in its materials, craftsmanship, and beauty<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Sagrada Familia School in Vallehermoso<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>Sagrada Familia School<\/strong> It was built after the Civil War on the site where the shelter and school run by the Daughters of Charity had once stood. It was run by the <strong>Madrid Provincial Board for the Protection of Minors<\/strong> and its chapel was designed by the architect <strong>Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda de la Vega y Samper<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although the project description published in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fundacioncoam.org\/fundacion_biblioteca\/fundacion-biblioteca-revista-arquitectura-100-anios-arquitectura-etapa-1941-1946-revista-nacional-arquitectura-n39-marzo-1945\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>National Architecture Magazine<\/em> (No. 39, Mar. 1945, pp. 85\u201391)<\/a> The Art Workshops are not mentioned; the photographs in the article show <strong>liturgical furnishings and images<\/strong>, all of which are well-known models from our company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The chapel was <strong>closed in 1977<\/strong> and was later converted into the current Teatro de la Abad\u00eda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Production at the GRANDA workshops in the postwar period<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We do not know the details of that commission today, since they have not yet been researched and are now part of history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>The workshops' output is immense<\/strong> and very little documentation has been preserved, especially from the postwar years. It is estimated that <strong>Between 1939 and 1952 alone, around 10,000 works were created<\/strong>, between projects and objects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One distinctive feature was to introduce <strong>changes in the designs each time they were made<\/strong>: even when starting with the same model, the result was always unique. In this case, the starting point was a model whose most notable example is the <strong>the reliquary of the Nocturnal Adoration of Oviedo<\/strong>, housed at the Oviedo Cathedral Museum, created in 1922.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The version created for the Vallehermoso school preserves the beauty and dignity of the original design, even though it features <strong>decorative simplifications typical of the years of scarcity and rationing<\/strong> after the Civil War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Artistic description of the monstrance: silver, enamel, and Eucharistic symbolism<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The case was made from <strong>gilded silver, chiseled and embossed<\/strong>, with vegetation at its base, and simply decorated with <strong>pearls, diamonds, amethysts, and enamel<\/strong>, the latter of which were likely donated.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/granda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CUSTODIA_2-2-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"history-custody-granda\" class=\"wp-image-42824\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.6669975186104219;width:425px;height:auto\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/granda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CUSTODIA_2-2-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/granda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CUSTODIA_2-2-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/granda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CUSTODIA_2-2-8x12.jpg 8w, https:\/\/granda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CUSTODIA_2-2-600x900.jpg 600w, https:\/\/granda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CUSTODIA_2-2.jpg 720w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The foot, flowers, fruits, and birds as a symbolic language<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The base of the monstrance carried by the Pope features a <strong>embossed decoration featuring intertwined ribbon motifs, foliage, and birds<\/strong>. For F\u00e9lix Granda, the flowers and fruits depicted on liturgical objects expressed the <strong>the joy with which the altar is decorated<\/strong> and the promise of an eternal spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He drew inspiration for this performance from the verses of <a href=\"https:\/\/es.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Paulino_de_Nola\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Saint Paulinus of Nola<\/strong><\/a> (<em>Poem XIV, On the Birthday of St. Felice, Poem III<\/em>):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u00abSing, children, your praises to the Lord, and gathered in your holy choirs, intone your songs of joy. Scatter your flowers across the earth and adorn the doorways with garlands. Let winter breathe life into the splendor of spring, and let the year blossom before its time.\u00bb<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Birds, for their part, usually represent <strong>the immortal souls of the faithful<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The shaft, the globe, and the top of the reliquary<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>The shaft of the Pope's monstrance is decorated with figures of angels<\/strong> and is topped by <strong>half sphere<\/strong> which serves as the base for the head. Although this sphere is not decorated in the Vallehermoso reliquary, in other versions of the model it represents the <strong>sphere of the Universe<\/strong>, that is, the Cosmos depicted as the footstool of the Throne of the Lamb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two angels in relief appear to be holding the <strong>a kick to the head<\/strong>, in whose arms\u2014adorned with <strong>translucent and champlev\u00e9 enamels<\/strong>\u2014 it features roundel depictions of the <strong>Tetramorphs<\/strong>. The dashes are replaced by a <strong>delicate openwork ornamentation made from twisted silver wire<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Other historical works by GRANDA at the Almudena Cathedral Museum<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In the <strong>Almudena Cathedral Museum<\/strong> Other significant historical works from our company have been preserved. Among them are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>- <\/strong>The chalice used in the wedding ceremony of Their Majesties King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>- <\/strong>The monstrance from the Nocturnal Adoration in Madrid, another iconic piece from our workshops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both pieces are a testament to the <strong>The Continuity and Relevance of the GRANDA Art Workshops<\/strong> throughout more than a century of liturgical history in Spain.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>El 18 de mayo de 2025, en la Capilla Sixtina y entre los cardenales electores, el Papa S.S. Le\u00f3n XIV celebraba la Santa Misa con la que daba inicio a su pontificado. En el momento de la consagraci\u00f3n, el Santo Padre elev\u00f3 el c\u00e1liz: una pieza de dise\u00f1o original sin dejar de ser cl\u00e1sico, en [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4416,"featured_media":42707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[200],"tags":[],"lista_post":[],"class_list":["post-42704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-actualidad-en-los-medios"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/granda.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/granda.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/granda.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granda.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4416"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granda.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42704"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/granda.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42827,"href":"https:\/\/granda.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42704\/revisions\/42827"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granda.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/granda.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granda.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granda.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42704"},{"taxonomy":"lista_post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granda.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/lista_post?post=42704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}