St. Michael chosen to guard Mexican mission churches

Welcoming Maya children attest to the land’s heritage

St. Michael – September 29

- WCR photo by Ted Fitzgerald St. Michael’s Church and ex Convento (convent) at Mani, dates back to 1559.

By TED FITZGERALD
Special to the WCR
Mani, Mexico

The sombre silence that greets travellers stopping to view the ancient church in Mani, Mexico is soon broken by the shrieks of fun-seeking, pan-handling neatly dressed school children. With great glee they accost visitors with rude shouts of “Dinero Gringo!” Soon tiring of the game, they run off to play elsewhere.

These are Maya children, descendants of the great temple builders and rulers of the Yucatan Peninsula. Their features appear on ancient bas-reliefs found at archaeological sites and they are often bilingual (Spanish and Mayan).

Since today’s schools stress the history of the Mexican Republic, the children of Mani are no doubt aware of the great significance of their old Parroquia y Exconvento de San Miguel Arcangel.

Surviving statue

The patron of the parish and former convent is the subject of an old statue of St. Michael the Archangel, one of the few artefacts that have survived in the Franciscan complex. The heavenly warrior was often chosen as guardian of mission churches in Mexico because of his reputation as victor over the fallen angels and his position as a link between heaven and earth.

Native stones

Tradition has it that the massive, fortress-like structure was built in seven months in 1559. Building stone was obtained by dismantling local native structures, standard practice in colonial Mexico.

As in much of Mexico, the church dominates the town. Its age-stained yellow and ochre limestone walls tower over the grassy plaza and contrast with the modest one-storey homes nearby.

The interior is plain, relatively unornamented and suggests a comparatively poor congregation. The few furnishings seem lost in the great nave and a tiny corner of a large room is all that’s needed for a vestry. One modest bell occupies bell-towers originally designed for six.

Large rooms in the massive-walled convento (convent) adjoining the church are open to the elements. Windows of sand fill the corners and the great stone staircases are worn with time. A heavy sense of past events, many traumatic, pervades the echoing corridors and overgrown gardens of the complex.

Some idea of the great numbers of Maya that attended the church can be gained by the presence of the large “open chapel” fronting the convento. Inclusion of this in the complex was necessary to accommodate crowds greater than the capacity of the church.

The site’s main claim to a place in history rests in its association with an infamous Spanish clergyman, Fray Diego de Landa. In an attempt to eradicate perceived idolatry among the Maya, he was responsible for the destruction of all Maya books that could be found. This Auto de Fe of 1562 (act of faith) left the world with only three known Maya texts (codices).

Subsequently, de Landa was accused of mistreating the populace (Spanish law at the time contained many safeguards for the protection of native peoples), and was jailed in Spain for a year pending an investigation of the charges.

Apologetic history

While incarcerated, he composed a text describing Maya life in all its aspects, as he had observed it at the beginning of the Spanish occupation. This undertaking favourably impressed the courts and resulted in his exoneration and eventual return to the New World as a bishop.

Ironically, de Landa has left posterity the only detailed account of pre-conquest Maya customs. However history judges this enthusiastic Franciscan, his Yucatan Before and After the Conquest is still a big seller in Yucatan.

Four hundred years later, the conquerors are history, Catholicism remains a cultural force in the area, and the Maya, despite initial high mortality under the Spanish, are still in Yucatan. The children of Mani will attest to that.

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