The story of the Crucifix or Our Lord of Esquipulas goes back to the early days of the Spanish Conquest in the Americas. During that time, the Spaniards occupied the southeastern region of what is today Guatemala, inhabited by the Maya Indians. The story goes that the Indians had a very wise Chief named Esquipulas, who agreed not to offer any resistance to the Spaniards, who, in turn, established a town and named it Santiago de Esquipulas, in honor of the peaceful chief. Soon the town became a center of trade and religious activities (Borhegyi 1956). According to historical documents, in 1595 the Spaniards commissioned the Portuguese sculptor and painter Quirio Cataño to carve a five-foot image of Christ on the cross. The Maya Indians had already seen enough of the Spanish cruelty and were suspicious of a white Christ. Knowing this, Cataño carved the crucifix out of balsam and orange wood, painted the cross green and decorated it with gold leaf, which made it easier for the Indians to accept it since the color of the wood resembled their skin color, especially after years of being in the altar with burning candles and incense nearby, turning the Christ black (Aragón 2006; Borhegyi 1956). The carved crucifix was then brought to the town of Santiago de Esquipulas and placed in a small chapel built on an indigenous sacred site, where health-giving springs existed. Not long after it came to the chapel, it became famous for its miraculous powers, especially related to healing.
As reported by priest Juan Paz Solórzano (1914), soon after the crucifix was placed in the chapel, people started to give credit to miracles. Ten miracles occurred in the 1600s and seven in the 1700s. According to a legend, the archbishop of Guatemala, Pedro Pardo de Figueroa, had a contagious disease and was cured during his visit to the chapel in 1737. In gratitude, he ordered the construction of a Sanctuary, which was finally completed in 1758 and the Crucifix of Our Lord of Esquipulas was moved from its original location in the small chapel to the new Sanctuary. According to Father Solórzano (1914), records show that from 1800 to the 1870s, only four miracles were recorded. From 1880 to 1911 twenty-eight miracles were attributed to the black Christ of Esquipulas, encouraging Father Solórzano and other priests to petition the archbishop to consecrate and declare Our Christ of Esquipulas to be the Patron saint of the Province of Guatemala. At Sanctuary of Esquipulas, in Guatemala, clay tablets, known as benditos or tierra del Santo, made of white kaolin obtained in the nearby mountains, are sold to the pilgrims. The clay is pressed into small rectangular cakes two inches long, one inch wide, and a quarter inch thick, which are stamped with embossed pictures of the Crucifix of Our Lord of Esquipulas, the Virgin Mary, or other Catholic saints, and then blessed by the priests. It is customary for the faithful to either eat it or dissolve it into water for drinking to cure different ailments, such as fevers, sores, menstruation and childbirth. Pilgrims usually carry several of these blessed clay cakes to give to relatives or friends (Borhegyi 1956; Few 2007). Eating clay and using it in cooking is a widely spread custom found in many parts of the world, including among the Maya Indians and the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico (Borhegyi 1956).
Eating and healing are usually linked to shrines where miraculous healing phenomena develop. The earth at the shrine of Esquipulas, in Guatemala, became known as the “medicine of the poor” and “the healing potion of all the destitute” (Few 2007, 117). According to Few, “that context for believing in miracles in colonial Guatemala and the rest of New Spain included the church’s ongoing campaigns of religious conversion of native peoples” (Few 2007, 222). Thus, these miracles, “set within a Catholic framework, provide evidence of how colonial institution such as the church formally mediated supernatural signs and sought to put its own ideological spin on miraculous healing” (Few 2007, 222). The custom of eating earth is also found in the small village of Chimayó, located in the state of New Mexico, in Southwest region of the United States. At El Santuario de Chimayó thousands of people partake of the blessed earth found in a pit, located in a room to the left of the main altar (Borhegyi 1956). The earth found at the shrine in Chimayó is supposed to contain great healing powers. The pilgrims come in thousands, just as in Guatemala, seeking healing. They also carry the earth home in bottles, plastic bags and handkerchiefs. Just like the faithful of Guatemala, the earth from Chimayó is dissolved in water and drunk or smeared over the ailing part of the body (Borhegyi 1956). Interestingly enough, the shrine of Chimayó is also dedicated to Our Lord of Esquipulas and the six-foot crucifix behind the altar is painted dark green and embellished with painted gold leaves, a rustic replica of the one from Guatemala, except that the Christ at the Chimayó shrine has not been blackened.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Aragón, Ray John. The Penitentes of New Mexico: Hermanos de la Luz/Brothers of the Light. Santa Fe: Sunstone Press, 2006.
Carroll, Michael P. The Penitente Brotherhood: Patriarchy and Hispano-Catholicism in New México. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002.
Few, Martha. Religion in New Spain. Edited by Susan Schroeder and Stafford Poole. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2007.
Gyuérrez, Ramón A. Feasts and Celebration in North American Ethnic Communities. Edit by Ramón A. Gutiérez and Geneviéve Fabre. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1995.
Howarth, Sam and Enrique R. Lamadrid. Pilgrimage to Chimayó: Contemporary Portrait of a Living Tradition. Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1999.
Solórzano, Juan Paz. Historia del Señor Crucificado de Esquipulas: De Su Santuario; Romerías; Antigua Província Eclesiástica de Chiquimula de la Sierra y Actual Vicaría Foránea. Guatemala: Imprensa Arenales Hijos: Esquipulas, 1914.
Usner, Don J. Sabino’s Map: Life in Chimayó’s Old Plaza. Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1995.
Weber, David J. The Spanish Frontier in North America. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992.
Great piece of work, I stumbled onto your site because you referenced my father the late Dr. Stephan Borhegyi. I am the son of Stephan de Borhegyi better known simply as Borhegyi. I have followed up on my father's archaeological research, which I have published on line, and can be read at mushroomstone.com
ReplyDeleteYou might find my research interesting and somewhat related to yours. I have made some interesting discoveries some of which may be related to certain rituals performed at the shrine in Guatemala dedicated to Our Lord of Esquipulas, which is very close to the Maya ruins of Copan. As already know the legends of a black Christ come from this area. My studies would infer that this legend is likely linked to a dualistc pre-Columbian Venus god named Quetzalcoatl who was associated with the creation of the world. Because this dualistic god was associated with blood sacrifice, and rituals that Priests and rulers would perform in the underworld,(Underworld-mushroom-jaguar-transformation) Mesoamerican Priests painted themselves black to represent the Evening Star aspect of Venus, thus emulating the ways of Quetzalcoatl as the God of underworld resurrection. Most Mesoamericans believed that they were descendants of Quetzalcoatl, a mythical god who descended into the Underworld and created mankind when he sprinkled his own blood onto the bones of past generations. I think there may be a link to the Black Christ and Lord Quetzalcoatl as the Evening Star aspect of Venus.
I have not written extensively on this possible connection but believe it is linked to some ground breaking work I have published on my web site at mushroomstone.com . Check it out. I am in the process of having this work published titled, Breaking The Mushroom Code, dedicated to my father's work and others.
take care Carl de Borhegyi