Madrid, Spain, May 11, 2020 / 13:40 pm
The San Pelayo Monastery, located in the city of Oviedo in the Asturias autonomous region in northwestern Spain, has housed a community of Benedictine nuns since the year 994.
The nuns bind and restore books, and starting in 2016 they have made and sold pastries to support the community.
The sisters had prepared a wide variety of baked goods to sell during Holy Week. But with the lockdown mandated by government to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, they instantly lost their customers and decided to donate the pastries instead.
They asked a neighbor for suggestions on someone who might need their donations. The Spanish daily ABC reported that the neighbor messaged a WhatsApp group of 33 people, noting that the religious sisters sell baked goods as a way of supporting themselves but had a surplus of pastries and no customers.
"They called me to see to whom they could donate these pastries. Before they do so, if anybody would like to gift some pastries to somebody or have some for yourself, you have the opportunity to buy them at the monastery from 9 to 2, and from 4 to 6:30. You can tell your friends about it. It would do the sisters a lot of good," the neighbor wrote.
The response was spectacular. ABC reported that people arrived at the community en masse, with lines stretching around the monastery. Every pastry was sold, and the sisters decided to continue producing baked goods to keep up with the demand.
The ABC article hailed the event as a sign of solidarity during the coronavirus pandemic, praising the act of "spontaneous generosity" and noting that "social media was used to join people together and…city residents appreciated the work of some nuns who have been part of their community for time immemorial."
This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.