Fr. Xavier Morell celebrates the 75th anniversary of his monastic profession

Sunday, July 19, 2026.— Seventy-five years ago, on July 16, 1951, Fr. Xavier Morell i Sauch, a monk of Montserrat, made his monastic profession at the age of seventeen. Today, he celebrated the anniversary of that event and renewed his monastic vows before the Benedictine community of Montserrat during the Conventual Mass for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, presided over by Fr. Manel Gasch i Hurios, Abbot of Montserrat.

Fr. Morell, born in Barcelona on January 4, 1934, has dedicated his life to the monastic vocation since July 8, 1950, when he entered the Abbey of Montserrat as a novice at the age of sixteen. He made his solemn profession on May 10, 1956, and was ordained a priest on September 21, 1957.

Highlights of his journey as a monk of Montserrat include his time spent in Rwanda, Tanzania, Cameroon (2003), and Germany (from 1959 to 1962 and from 1965 to 1966). During his time in Germany, he learned the craft of goldsmithing and earned the title of Master Goldsmith and Silversmith.
 

In Africa, he lived at the Gihindamuyaga monastery (Rwanda) between 1982 and 1987, and at the monasteries of Peramiho (Tanzania) and Gihindamuyaga (Rwanda) between 1989 and 1994—leaving only due to the war in Rwanda, though he returned there in November of that same year as a nurse with the association Medicus Mundi.

With a life defined by a thirst for learning and missionary work, he moved to the Sanctuary of El Miracle in the Solsonès region in 2004, where he began studying ceramics; since 2024, he has been a resident at the Monastery of Montserrat.