Bishop of Barbastro-Monzon Orders Torreciudad Statue Back to Its Hermitage

The original carving of Our Lady of the Angels will be moved to its hermitage-shrine at Torreciudad to preside over the opening of the 47th Pilgrimage of the Virgins of Ribagorza on Saturday, September 5. The decision was made by the bishop of Barbastro-Monzon, Angel Javier Perez Pueyo, so that the image can receive in its own centuries-old home the Marian images brought from the districts of Ribagorza and Sobrarbe in the Aragonese Pyrenees.

From the hermitage the pilgrimage will then set out for the newer church, led by the diocesan bishop and accompanied by the visiting Marian images. Mass will be celebrated there. The image is currently kept in the church built at the initiative of Opus Dei and opened in 1975. Before that it was venerated for more than a thousand years in the hermitage by successive generations of the faithful of those districts.

Diocesan evangelization project

The diocese places the decision within its Marian evangelization project, which seeks to strengthen the ties among the Marian titles of the territory and to make Torreciudad a meeting point for hermitages, parishes, towns and communities. Perez Pueyo also cited "historical fidelity and loyalty toward the people of Barbastro-Monzon" in arguing that the carving should return periodically to its hermitage, with a faithful copy kept in the newer church.

The dispute with the prelature

The move comes in the closing stage of the dispute between the diocese and the Prelature of Opus Dei. In December 2022 the diocese moved to terminate a 1962 emphyteutic lease, a long-term land contract, and demanded the return of the image and of the hermitage and its outbuildings. In July 2023 the bishop appointed as rector of the shrine a priest who is not a member of Opus Dei, after the prelature had asked in 2020 for the contract to be renegotiated.

The case reached Rome in September 2024. Weeks later, Pope Francis named Msgr. Alejandro Arellano Cedillo, dean of the Roman Rota, as pontifical commissioner with full powers. In June 2025 a draft agreement was leaked that provided for a diocesan shrine, a rector named by the bishop from a list of three candidates submitted by the prelature, and the pilgrimage of the original carving to the hermitage twice a year.

The outcome

Sources consulted said Arellano's ruling sided with the prelature on the substance, with the transfer of the image serving as a concession on form that allows the outcome to be presented as a mutual accommodation in which both Opus Dei and the bishop of Barbastro-Monzon gave something up.

The final arrangement points to Torreciudad as a diocesan shrine, with the image going down periodically to its hermitage and the rest of the dispute settled. Arellano will be at the shrine this September to preside over the Marian Day of the Family. The Pilgrimage of the Virgins of Ribagorza is held on the first Saturday of September each year.