In 2018, the Cathar festival of Josa de Cadí, celebrated since 1996, turned into a moving tribute to the recently-imprisoned political leaders of the Catalan government. This small Pyrenean hamlet, perched at the top of a hill on the southern slopes of the Cadí mountain, was festooned with yellow ribbons – the symbol of solidarity with the Catalan detainees – interspersed among the traditional medieval coats of arms that are typically used to decorate the wooden and masonry balconies for the occasion. A large banner demanding freedom was hanging on a stone facade presiding over the village square (plaça). Every first weekend in August, the Cathar festival brings hundreds of people to this particular spot, inhabited by just a handful of permanent residents but a site of personal attachment for a regular community of temporary residents with second homes. This was the case of Jordi Turull, the former counselor and spokesperson for the Presidency, who was accused of sedition and rebellion in March 2018 and has been incarcerated since then. Originally from Parets del Vallès, one of the industrial areas near Barcelona, Turull is part of this particular residential community that has developed strong ties to the hamlet, which had neared total depopulation during the 1980s.

Turull was granted in absentia the designation of Bon home (Good man), the popular name given to Cathar heretics back in the 12th and 13th centuries, considered to be pious and compassionate as opposed to the fatuous degeneracy of the Catholic Church. It was a newly created appointment made up by heritage experts working in a local administration, the Consell Comarcal de l’Alt Urgell, with the aim of honoring and advocating Jordi Turull. The President of Catalonia, Quim Torra, recently barred from public office by the Supreme Court of Spain, attended the event, which turned into a massive demonstration of support for the political prisoners and a celebration of Catalan independence. During the various speeches and ceremonies held throughout this day in 2018, many comparisons were drawn between the current situation of exile and political imprisonment in Catalonia and that of the Cathars throughout the 12th and 13th centuries. A medieval religious sect of southern France that challenged the authority of the Catholic Church, the Cathars were massacred during the Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229), which forced many of its member to seek refugee across the Pyrenees.