This brilliant golden room, in which the "Black Madonna" of Montserrat is enthroned, is called the Virgin's Chamber. It is meant to commemorate the little place in which Our Lady lived. The Monastery of Montserrat, in the mountains of Spain, was built in honor of the Annunciation.

St. Ignatius of Loyola made an all-night vigil over his sword and armor at the Monastery of Montserrat, before the "Black Madonna", and William Thomas Walsh writes, "in the spirit of the most exalted chivalry [he] resigned his sword forever -- resolved to devote himself thenceforth to holier pursuits."

Montserrat had been a place of pilgrimage for centuries before St. Ignatius, and continued after his death.

"As the ages rolled away, the fame of the miraculous image of Our Lady of Montserrat increased more and more. Pilgrims flocked in vast numbers from all parts of Europe to lay the homage of their devotion at Mary's Shrine. Those were the days of faith, and many were the privations and sufferings endured even by those of the highest rank to reach the favored spot, -- some trudging barefoot and bleeding over the hard rocks. Kings and queens esteemed themselves fortunate in making the pilgrimage, and carried with them, as votive offerings, lamps and vessels of gold and silver adorned with jewels...It would not be possible to enumerate the wonders wrought at this shrine. In all ages the sinful, the suffering, the sorrowful, have laid their woes at the feet of Our Lady of Montserrat, and none have ever gone away unheard or unaided."

~ William Thomas Walsh, The Apparitions and Shrines of Heaven's Bright Queen volume 1, 1904.