Saint Genadio was a bishop during the Early Middle Ages. He resigned his high clerical status in 920 CE to meditate in a cave in El Valle del Silencio (Silent valley) in the Mountains of León. Located near the Mozarabic monastery in Peñalba de Santiago, he practiced a new and unknown game that helped him meditate. Today, somewhere in that area are still four pieces of carved goat bones that he used for the game derived from the Persian “Shatranj,” known today as Chess. In Spain toward the end of the…
