25 young girls in Valencia visit the Pas of the Pyrenees

Attached is a brief chronicle written by Irene Beltrán, 14 years-old, one of the participants in these days in Pallerols.

From the 11th to the 14th of October we were a group of 25 people from the Blaumar Cultural Association (Valencia) to the refuge of Pallerols, where years ago Saint Josemaria Escriva passed by accompanied by some of the first members of Opus Dei, when they were trying to escape from the republican zone, where in those years of the Spanish Civil War there was no religious freedom, and to be able to pass through the Pyrenees to the other part of Spain.

With the passage of time the rectory of Pallerols had collapsed and the Association of Friends of the Pallerols Way from Rialb to Andorra has recently reformed it, so that it has remained as it was in 1937. For example, the so-called “oven” where they slept one of the most important nights of this voyage, remains the same.

On the first day Ramón Camats, an expert in the area, explained the history of the place, the church of Pallerols and the rectory, then we went on an excursion to St. Raphael’s Cabin where St. Josemaría and the other 7 people who accompanied him spent several hidden days. Inside the cabin we were surprised to see a photograph of Our Lady of the Pillar hanging from a pole with words written by St. Josemaria. We took the opportunity to have a snack and tell a little about the history of what happened there during those days. On the way back to the refuge, we passed by the raft where they went to bathe every day during the days of November 1937 that remained in the cabin.

The next day, we made another stretch of the Pyrenees pass crossing the Andorran border through the mountain. It was a few kilometres, but very uphill, which helped us a great deal to appreciate the effort they put into crossing the mountains for five nights, with hardly any food and no suitable footwear. We finished the day in Andorra getting to know the country.

It has been a few days to get to know Opus Dei better and to do a lot of work between the levels of 3o of ESO to 2o of Bachillerato.

A plan to repeat every year!