Santo Toribio de Liébana

Monastery of Santo Toribio de Liébana
Santo Toribio de Liébana, Cantabria (Spain)
Religion
AffiliationRoman Catholic
StatusMonastery
Location
LocationCamaleño (Cantabria), Spain
Geographic coordinates43°9′0″N 4°39′14.4″W / 43.15000°N 4.654000°W / 43.15000; -4.654000
Architecture
TypeMonastery
StyleRomanesque
Completed12th century
TypeCultural
Criteriaii, iv, vi
Designated2015 (32nd session)
Parent listingRoutes of Santiago de Compostela: Camino Francés and Routes of Northern Spain
Reference no.669bis-020
RegionEurope and North America
TypeNon-movable
CriteriaMonument
Designated11 August 1953
Reference no.RI-51-0001242
Website
Official Website

The Monastery of Santo Toribio de Liébana is a Roman Catholic monastery located in the district of Liébana, near Potes in Cantabria, Spain. Located in the Cantabrian Mountains in northern Spain, the monastery is one of the five places in Roman Catholicism, together with Rome, Jerusalem, Santiago de Compostela and Caravaca de la Cruz, that has the privilege of issuing perpetual indulgences.

The monastery was founded prior to the 6th century. The monastery holds and venerates part of the Lignum Crucis discovered in Jerusalem by Saint Helena of Constantinople, which is claimed to be the largest piece held. Brought from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre by Saint Turibius of Astorga, the left arm of the True Cross is kept on a gilded silver reliquary. The monastery was initially dedicated to St. Martin of Tours but its name was changed in the 12th century.

On April 16, 1961, the Franciscan friars, Custodians of the Holy Places, were entrusted with the relic's safekeeping and with the promotion of the devotion to the Holy Cross.