Wise man, patron of the arts, expert in canon law, diplomat and, above all, leader of a Church that ended up turning its back on him and declaring him a heretic. During his lifetime, Papa Luna’s head went around a lot. With death, he did not find rest either and was the object of ridicule, theft and, now, the epicenter of a judicial conflict between two neighboring Aragonese towns. A litigation with an uncertain outcome that involves the events of the 600th anniversary of the death of antipope Benedict XIII, whose memory is fighting to rehabilitate the Aragonese authorities.
“Papa Luna is the noblest son this town has had, and we will fight to recover his skull.” The one who speaks like this is the new mayor of Illueca (province of Zaragoza), José Javier Vicente, who just took office after the May 28 elections. He thus follows the line of his predecessor, who went to court against the decision of the government of Aragon to deliver in 2021 the relic they had in storage in the neighboring municipality of Sabiñán, less than 20 kilometers away. “We hope that the courts will let his head rest here, which is where he always wanted to be,” he adds.
Pedro Martínez de Luna y Pérez de Gotor was born in this locality on November 25, 1328. He was the second son of the Lunas, one of the main Aragonese lineages, related to archbishops and kings. With military training, he laid down his arms to enter the Church, of which he was pontiff between 1394 and 1398, until he was deposed after an agitated conclave. He died in 1423, at the age of 95, in Peñíscola, where he had taken refuge after losing the support to maintain his pontificate and being declared a heretic. “He was a key figure at a crucial moment such as the Great Schism in the West, when what was happening in the Church had a direct influence on people’s daily lives,” says Marisancho Menjón, general director of Patrimonio al Aragon during the last legislature.
In 1430, with the permission of the King of Aragon, his nephew Juan de Luna deposited his embalmed body in his native town. He remained there until, between 1701 and 1707, his corpse was desecrated by French troops participating in the War of the Succession. The skull, the only remnant that was saved, was then moved to the palace of the Counts of Argillo, owned by the Olazábal family, in the neighboring municipality of Sabiñán. But his odyssey did not end there. In 2000, two young people from the village stole the skull to demand a ransom of one million pesetas, an episode that resulted in their subsequent arrest and conviction. For its part, the head ended up being deposited in the warehouse of the Provincial Museum of Zaragoza, where numerous studies were made.
During this time, representatives of Illueca met with Menjón to ask her to return her to her native municipality, a decision that she says was not up to her discretion. “The terms of the judicial deposit established that it had to be returned to its rightful owners”, he says. These owners were the Olazábal family, who a few years ago donated the palace and its utensils – skull included – to the Sabiñán City Council. “We have all the relevant documentation on the transfer in order”, emphasizes the town’s mayor, Ignacio Marcuello.
While they are gradually rehabilitating the palace, he explains that his council enabled a chapel in the church of Sant Pere Apostol to be able to house this Property of Cultural Interest, as cataloged by the Aragonese Provincial Council in 2007. “There are security cameras and systems to control the temperature and humidity that guarantee its conservation in perfect conditions”, confirms Menjón. In this situation, the Aragonese government finally decided to deliver the relic in 2021 to Sabiñán to the joy of its neighbors, a decision that in March of this year was ratified by the Supreme Court of Justice of Aragon (TSJA).
However, from neighboring Illueca they are not giving up. One of their lawyers, Jorge Español (who also took part in the Aragon-Catalonia dispute over the property of the monastery of Sixena), confirms that they have filed an appeal before the TSJA and that they expect it to be resolved soon in their favor. “If not, we do not rule out appealing to the European Court of Human Rights”, he says.
From the neighboring town, its mayor criticizes that such an important figure has been dragged into a discussion between neighbors. “All the effort that Illueca is making to claim it and we to defend ourselves should combine it to get the excommunication revoked and take advantage of its cultural and tourist attraction”, argues Marcuello. Even so, he acknowledges that the extent of the conflict makes future understanding difficult for possible collaborations, and he does not renounce demanding “damages and damages”.
The open process between the two taints the commemoration of the 600 years since the death of Benedict XIII, who defended orthodoxy and his legitimacy as pontiff until the end of his life (from his stubbornness comes the phrase “maintain- he was thirteen”). To commemorate him, numerous talks, guided tours, book presentations and a complete exhibition at the Alma Mater Museum in Zaragoza entitled El Papa Luna have been organized. Knowledge, diplomacy and power in medieval Europe, where his skull was one of the main attractions.
At the same time, community authorities continue to struggle to rehabilitate their memory. At the end of 2022, the Aragonese president himself, the socialist Javier Lambán, traveled to Rome accompanied by the Archbishop of Zaragoza, Carlos Escribano, to request help from Pope Francis in this undertaking. “As a good Aragonese, he was a stubborn Pope, but also a very wise and cultured man of his time”, assured the Aragonese president at the time. Likewise, he regretted that the image of his countryman as a heretic “does not obey the reality” of going against the Church and highlighted that he was “the architect of the Compromís de Casp, embryo of the future union of “Spain between Isabella and Ferdinand”.
