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The Michael Servetus
Institute is a non-religious and non-profit cultural organization
located in Villanueva de Sijena, a town of 500 inhabitants belonging
to Los Monegros (black mountains) County, in the Province
of Huesca. Huesca is one of the three provinces of Aragón,
a region in the northeast of Spain. It was founded in 1976 by
Mr. Julio Arribas Salaberri with the objective of studying,
by way of scientific criteria, the life and works of Michael
Servetus and spreading his intellectual and scientific legacy.
The Institute is also dedicated to study the history of the
Royal Monastery of Sijena, the place in which Servetus’
father acted as Royal notary public.
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to Servertus’ teachings, the Institute assumes as
part of its mission:
- the defense of
the values and dignity inherent in any individual,
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the freedom of conscience and speech as a way to foster
human beings’ development,
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the need to practice tolerance and justice in human relationships,
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the search for truth as the source of all knowledge, and
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the rejection of dogmatism by affirming Reason within the framework of the humanistic principles
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The
Institute’s main mission is to bring together
all the Servetus’ specialists in the world. This
reveals the international nature of the Institute's
activities.
During
more than 25 years, the Michael Servetus Institute has
regularly organized seminars and workshops on Servetus’
life and legacy.
When
nobody in Spain remembered this unique Spanish humanist,
the Institute was, and continues to be, the cradle of
a rich and rigorous intellectual debate around the figure
and the legacy of Michael Servetus. This debate has
always been free from the such superficial and derisive
cultural spirit that inspires most official educational
systems.
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In
this sense, the Institute has been always conscious that any institution
that vindicates a space for its cultural activities must hold
a special responsibility before society so that all the research
activities that sponsors or encourages rely on quality and scientific
rigor. For that reason, the Institute uses its best endeavours
so that all the studies that promotes, and specially, those on
Michael Servetus, adjust to the objectivity, rigor and transparency
that all research work demands
Since
the Institute initiated its activities in 1976, the Institute
has edited and sponsored more than twenty lectures given in its
headquarters by some of the most conspicuous specialist in Servetus’
works. These edited lectures are a landmark collection for all
those wanting to acquire a deeper knowledge of Servetus’
universe.
Each
year, at the end of October, the members of the Institute gather
in Villanueva de Sijena to commemorate the death of Servetus in
Geneva and pay homage to his memory before the monument that was
erected by the neighbors of Villanueva in 1975, precisely in the
same place in which the Spanish inquisition burned Servetus’
effigy.
The Michael Servetus Institute also devotes part of its effort
to study and spread the history of the Royal Monastery of Sijena.
Founded above a lake located 0.5 miles. from the town of Villanueva
in 1188 by Queen Sancha, wife of king Alfonso II, The Chaste,
the Monastery became the family tomb of the Aragon monarchy during
the XII and the XIII centuries.
During
the XIV century, the Monastery, under the patronage of
Princess Blanca, the daughter of King James II, became
one of the most magnificent monasteries of the Order
of Saint John of Jerusalem in Europe.
Since
it was burned and looted by the troops loyal to the Spanish
Republic in 1936, most of its rooms have remained in ruins.
The Institute has constantly defended and vindicate before
the authorities the need to restore and recoup for the
Aragonian and Spanish society this landmark monument to
understand the origins of the Kingdom of Aragon.
The
Michael Servetus Institute is an institution opened to
all those interested in the study and spread of Servetus’
legacy, or the history of the Royal Monastery of Sijena.
Since the Institute was founded, numerous famous professors,
such as Alcalá Galve, Marian Hillar, Ciriaco Morón,
Fernando Solsona, Sánchez Blanco, Bainton, Friedman,
and Laín Entralgo, have been members (consejeros)
of the Instituto.
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Currently, the Institute has approximately 200 members whose task is aimed at pursuing the work of all those members who consecrated its effort to claim and revisit Servetus’ life and legacy in Spain and abroad, as well as to the study and the vindication of the Sixenam heritage. |
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Mr. JULIO ARRIBAS SALABERRI
The Michael Servetus Institute is the project of a visionary.
Before its creation in 1976, there was not any organization
in Spain aimed at promoting and coordinating scientific
research on Servetian studies.
Mr. Julio Arribas Salaberri was a man who used his passion
for Aragón to overcome the stereotypes associated
with Aragonian culture (mostly related to regional dancing
and a traditional red or purple checked scarf worn on
the head). The most evident manifestation of this passion
was the creation of the Michael Servetus Institute. |
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Like other great figures of the Aragonian culture, he was born in a little town, Apiés (1911), in the Huesca Province. He studied first in the "Escuelas Pías" of Zaragoza, and thereafter in the Commerce School of Zaragoza where he was granted the degree of Mercantile Professor. He also graduated from the School of High Mercantile Studies in Barcelona.
He spent the first years of his professional life in the Huesca Province, in which he was the secretary general of the city councils of Bolea and de Villanueva de Sijena, and the Finances Director in the city council of Jaca and in the Provincial Administration of Huesca. In 1942 he was appointed Finances Director of the Provincial Administration of Lérida, a city located 75 km. from Villanueva de Sijena. He lived and developed his career in this city until his retirement. While being in the local administration, he modernized it, enhancing the services rendered to citizens and speeding up the administrative tasks. En 1971, he was appointed as a member of the Studies Institute of Lérida, where he developed a meritorious research activity .
Arribas was a man of tremendous work capacity and a controversial, passionate and progressive personality, which resulted in some misunderstandings and enmities. Nonetheless, the main feature of his personality was generosity. Only by taking into account his generosity can we understand his intense and valuable task during the years he headed up the Institute.
Mr. Arribas served as a catalyzer and coordinator of Servetian studies in Spain which at that time remained very scarce, spread out and based on an anecdotic knowledge (hence superficial) of Servetus' legacy. It must be stated without exaggeration that Arribas is responsible, along with Professors José Barón Fernández and Angel Alcalá Galve, for the evolution in Spain from anecdotic Servetism to scientific Servetism. In addition, his activities heading up the Institute marked a turning point in the internationalization of Servetian studies in Spain As he used to say: "I am attempting to bring together all the Servetians around this Aragonian entity".
Equally important to his work regarding Servetus was his personal battle to defend the heritage of the Sixena Monastery. Mr. Arribas was, through his newly created Institute, one of the first intellectuals to petition the restoration of the Monastery of Sijena and to firmly denounce the lack of will of the authorities towards Sixena's ruins.
He died on April 22, 1984, after fighting against a long disease. He was buried in Huerto, a little town located 30 miles from Villanueva de Sijena.
To
learn more about Julio Arribas Salaberri, you may want to consult
the book which was edited in his honor by the Ateneo de Zaragoza
and the Michael Servetus Institute: “D. Julio Arribas (1911
- 1984)”.
Written and translated by Sergio Baches Opi
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