Legend has it that a Jesuit priest once kept it concealed under his bed. Whether or not that’s true, for a long time nobody knew the whereabouts of the monstrance of the Church of Saint Ignatius of Bogotá, an extraordinary example of 18th-century goldsmithing known popularly as "La Lechuga" (The Lettuce) because of the green hue of its 1,485 emeralds.
Meant to hold the consecrated host as part of the Catholic Church’s rites, this particular monstrance was wrought by the Spaniard José Galaz, who took seven years to create what is one of the most valuable and symbolic religious jewels in all of Latin America.
