In Catalonia, Angela Coromina, known online as Iaia Angeleta, joined 8,000 pilgrims at Montserrat Monastery on Wednesday to see Pope Leo XIV. The influencer from Prats de Lluçanès attended the Pope’s prayer inside the basilica during his visit to the Bages region.
Coromina later shared the moment in a video on her Instagram account. Her caption referred to the Virgin of Montserrat, the Holy Father and the Escolania, alongside a clip of Leo XIV with the Moreneta, the Black Madonna statue.
She also said she had to overcome her fear of the rack railway to make the trip. On the morning of the visit, the rack railway was the only public transport available to reach the abbey, after a large police deployment and a series of restrictions.
The Pope addressed the pilgrims inside the basilica and spoke for much of the service in Catalan. He referred to the values of Montserrat, his devotion to the Moreneta and the legacy of Saint Ignatius of Loyola.
The visit drew strong interest despite the logistical limits around access to the monastery. For Coromina and many others, it was a significant moment at one of Catalonia’s best-known religious sites.
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