more than an annual basis, sharing two dozen Francis- 

 can clergy with missions assigned to Indian pueblos 

 and Spanish villages. Before 1800, a shortage of friars 

 prompted the Bishop in Durango to send secular clergN- 

 into the Franciscan enclave of New Mexico. In 1821 

 the Mexican Revolution fomialized secularization with 

 a new constitution. In brief, the traditional religious 

 patterns of the Hispanos were threatened. They needed 

 reinforcement if they were to survive. 



By 1850, other conditions in New Mexico endan- 

 gered the status quo of the Spanish-speaking residents. 

 With the growing dominance of Anglo-Americans in 

 the commercial, military, political, and social matters 

 of Santa Fe, Hispanos recognized the threat of Anglo 

 culture to their own traditional way of life. This cul- 

 tural challenge turned many Hispanos back in upon 

 themselves for physical and social security and for 

 spiritual comfort. By the second quarter of the 19th 

 century, penitentes were common in Hispano villages 

 such as Abiquiu.'- The immediate origins of peniten- 

 tism were clearly present in early 19th-century New 

 Mexico. 



Despite this evidence, historians of the Spanish 

 Southwest have suggested geographically and culturally 

 remote sources for the penitentes. Dorothy Wood- 

 ward has pointed out similarities between New- 

 Mexican penitentes and Spanish brotherhoods 

 (cofradias) of laymen.'-^ Cofradias were not full church 

 orders like the Franciscan Third Order, but thev did 

 conduct Lenten processions with flagellation. 



Somewhat nearer in miles but culturally more distant 

 from Hispano penitente experience was mortification 

 practiced by Indians in New Spain. In the i6th cen- 

 tury, Spanish chroniclers reported incidents ranging 

 from sanguinary ceremonies of central Mexican tribes 

 to whippings witnessed in the northern provinces of 

 Sonora and New Mexico. While of peripheral interest 

 to this study, these activities of American Indians had 

 no direct bearing on Hispano cultural needs in early 

 19th-century New Mexico. 



It is more significant that Hispanos already knew a 

 lay religious institution that very easily could have 

 served as a model for the penitente brotherhood — the 

 Third Order of St. Francis. Established in 13th-century 

 Italy and carried to Spain by the Gray Friars, the 

 Order is recorded in contemporary histories of New 



12. AASF, Paten tes, book Ixxiii, box 6. 



13. "The Penitentes of the Southwest" (unpublished 

 Ph. D. dissertation, Yale University, 1935) . 



Mexico before 1700. Materials in the archives of the 

 Archdiocese of Santa Fe also document the presence 

 of the Franciscan Third Order in New Mexico and 

 suggest to me its influence on penitente activity.^-* 



In March 1776, Fray Dominguez, an ecclesiastic 

 visitor, recorded Lenten "exercises" of the Third 

 Order under the supervision of the resident priest at 

 Santa Cruz and, two weeks later, in April, Dominguez 

 visited Abiquiii, where he commended the Franciscan 

 friar. Fray Sebastian Angel Fernandez, for "feasts of 

 Our Lady, rosary with the father in church. Fridays of 

 Lent, Via Crucis with the father, and later, after dark, 

 discipline attended by those who came voluntarily." '^ 

 Dominguez, however, described the priest as "not at 

 all obedient to rule" '° when Father Fernandez, act- 

 ing in an independent manner, proceeded to build 

 missions at Picuris and Sandia without authorization. 

 But in 1777, he again praised Fray Fernandez for 

 special Via Crucis devotions and "scourging by the 

 resident missionary and some of the faithful." ^' 

 Dominguez thus docimiented flagellant practices and 

 tinieblas services at Abiquiii and his approval, as an 

 official Church representative, of these activities. 



Father Chavez, O.F.M., protests the theory of peni- 

 tente origins in the Third Order of St. Francis and 

 counters with the idea that "penitentism" was im- 

 ported directly from Mexico in the early i8oos.'^ I 

 note, however, that the bishops seated in Santa Fe after 

 1848 recognized the strength of this lay socio-religious 

 movement and tried to deal with it in terms of the 

 Order. At a synod in 1888, Archbishop Salpointe 

 pleaded for penitentes "to return" to the Third Order. 

 Some degree of direct influence of the Third Order on 

 "penitentism" seems fairly certain. 



The History of Abiquiu 



About three generations before the first morada was 

 built at Abiquiu, the conditions of settlement men- 

 tioned earlier and subsequent historical events resulted 

 in an environment conducive to the development of 



14. Chavez, /lr<r/iii'<'i, p. 3 (ftn.). 



15. Fray Francisco Atanasio Domi'nguez, The Missions 

 of New Mexico, iy-6, transl. and annot. Eleanor B. .^dams 

 and Fray Angelico Chavez (Albuquerque: University of New 

 Mexico Press, 1956), p. 124. 



16. Dominguez, ms., from Biblioteca National de Mejico, 

 leg. 10, no. 46, p. 300. 



I 7. Ibid., no. 43, p. 321. 



18. Chavez, "Penitentes," p. 100. 



126 



BULLETIN 250: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



