The Escolania de Lluc sings at the audience with Pope Francisco at the Vatican

For the first time in its history, the Escolania de Lluc has sung before Pope Francisco in Rome at the General Audience that took place today in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican

A total of 40 boys and girls singers took part in the General Audience with Pope Francisco in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. It is the first time in the history of the Escolania de Lluc, which dates back to the 15th century and is the oldest in Europe, that this has happened.

The songs of the Blauets de Lluc were heard at the beginning of the Audience, during the Pope’s arrival in the square in the convertible car in which he drove through the corridors arranged among the thousands of people he greeted. The repertoire chosen by the Escolania to delight Pope Francisco was Jubilate Deo and Ave Maria, both by Xabier Sarasola, Glòria Maria by J. L. Lambert and Cançó a la Verge by Pau Casals.
In addition to the singers, the group of Mallorcan pilgrims included some 150 people led by the bishop of Mallorca, Sebastià Taltavull, and the prior of the Lluc Sanctuary, Marià Gastalver.

The Blauets presented the Pope with gifts

After his speech, Pope Francisco approached the group and greeted the Mallorcan delegation, who took the opportunity to present him with various gifts from the Lluc Sanctuary: some mides or ribbons of the Virgin of Lluc, the figure of a Blauet made of clay by the ceramics artisan Malena Roig, the book ‘Llull paraula – Lluc imatge’, a picture of Saint Alonso Rodríguez painted by the Mallorcan Jesuit Fr. Miquel Garau, and a pair of bootees knitted by the mother of the Prior of Lluc.

Bishop Sebastià Taltavull described the celebration as “very moving” and detailed that the Vatican, from the beginning of the talks to prepare this visit, “has welcomed the Escolania de Lluc with great affection“. He also described the great excitement felt by the children when Pope Francisco approached them and spoke with them. The Bishop highlighted the Pope’s interest “as always” in Mallorca, in the activity of the Diocese and in the people he remembers from his trip in 1983, during which, among other places, he visited the tomb of Saint Alonso Rodríguez, to whom he has great devotion.