This photo shows two of San Miguel's most popular churches.
Stretching across the foreground is, of course, the
iconic La Parroquia with its quasi-gothic tower. At
left center with its own distinctive domed tower and somewhat
funky steeple is the Church of the Immaculate Conception
which Miguelinos affectionately call
Las
Monjas ("the Nuns.") In fact, it still contains a
small cloister of active nuns -- the Sisters of the
Immaculate Conception -- the same order that founded the
convent in 1754 when the town's richest debutante decided to
live the convent life and started her own order.
[41]
Both the strange tower at right and the large classic dome
at left had the same builder. Read on!
More than just a church, Las Monjas is a complex although
some of its space has been taken over for secular purposes
(namely art and culture, the new religions?)
Originally the convent's property was much more extensive,
including gardens and orchards. Later revolutions
caused the Mexican government to confiscate most religious
property except for the inside of churches. (This also
saddled them with maintaining the exterior of many decaying
buildings).
We'll talk about the art space, called the Nigromonte
center, elsewhere (
click here to
go there now). As you can see from the above picture,
Las Monjas has a fenced-in courtyard. (The picture at
right shows the entranceway decorated for the holy day;
click on it to see it enlarged). We found this used for
band concerts and vendors selling enchiladas on the Holiday
when we visited.
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While
this is a fairly large band, no one seems to be
reading music (or even to have brought any).
It may be one of the local bands where
children are given instruments and eventually learn
the parts (or maybe not, given the sound of many of
these groups.) At any rate, they add a
festive air to the holy day.
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Ceferino Gutierrez's second church
Las Monjas' most distinctive architectural feature is its
dome, patterned after that on the Chapel of
Les Invalides on Paris's left bank (see thumbnail from
Wikipedia above right). While Paris had the
Versailles-famous Jules Hardouin-Mansart do the one
shown in thumbnail, San Miguel had its own famous
architect, Ceferino Gutierrez, frame the
symmetry of this high dome
[45]
two centuries later. Yes, the same illiterate builder
of the Gothesque tower of
La Parroquia!
Did he who made the lamb make thee?
The Immaculate Conception
Here's a view of Los Monjas taken from the
Jardin, ground zero in San Miguel. Note the statue
of the Immaculate Conception atop the dome, peeking out
beyond Los Monjas's steeple completed in 1842.
We visited on December 8th -- the feast of the Immaculate
Conception, honoring the woman that the archangel Gabriel
greeted as "full of grace." Immaculate Conception refers to
the long standing Catholic belief (solidified as dogma in
1854) that Mary was born without the original sin that Adam
and Eve inflicted upon their descendants by messing up in the
Garden of Eden.
Ah for the days when the world was young and there were
still some sins that were original! Catholics celebrate
the Immaculate Conception on December 8th, exactly nine
months before Mary's birth. Do the math.
In the picture below, note the statues of the saints atop
Corinthian columns on Gutierrez's
dome.
The Foundress
The convent was founded in 1754
after the eldest daughter of the town's most important family
petitioned the King of Spain to found a congregation to be
known as the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception.
Dona Maria Josefa Lina de la Canal y Hervas was only 16
when she petitioned the king. With recently deceased
parents and a huge fortune, she was probably the most
eligible bachelorette in town. But she held true to her
vocation which seemed to be about piety, not necessarily good
works.[111]
The need for
a convent was obvious to most of the town as the closest
convent was over 100
miles away.
At her death at age 34, Josefa was interred after the
most elaborate funeral the town ever witnessed.
Work began on the church in1755 with the dome being added in
1891. The original church architect was Francisco
Martinez Gudino from Guadalajara.
[42]
Supposedly Gudino was "wildly flamboyant" in his interior
decoration. However, most of the insides were pilfered
during one of the revolutions and we are left with a much
different space.
The Interior
Given the huge expanse of land the convent once held,
Architect Gudino expected folks to enter through the main
door showing at far left int he picture below; today most
enter from the smaller east door and see this long view of
the nave. These walls were once lined with
frescoes.
Like any good Mexican church, Los Monjas has its statue of
St. Martin de Porres near the entrance. Born in Lima,
Peru,
Martin was the son of a Spanish nobleman and a
freed Black slave. Given his piety, good works, and
frequent miracles, the Dominicans dropped their racial rules
and allowed him into their order. (He had originally
been taken in by them as a servant.)
Martin is frequently shown with a broom as he viewed all
work, no matter how menial, as sacred. He is often
shown with dogs or cats (as here) as he would eat from their
dishes to show humility. It took the church more than
300 years to canonize him.
The Cloister
Inside we found several nuns from the cloister attending to
the statue of the Immaculate Conception in the second story
above the altar, no doubt dressing her up for her feast day.
The area is accessed from the back by hidden
ladders.
Cloistered nuns withdraw from the world but Miguelinos often
see these women going about their work which include ringing
the convent bells. The convent was designed for 66
cloistered nuns and 6 secular nuns (who would deal with the
outside world). Each was to bring a dowry of
4000
pesos. The convent complex itself was designed for
simplicity. Most Mexican convents were really
retirement homes for wealthy women and included space for
their maids. Not so here where the simple rooms had
room for only one person.
Dome Interior
If the church's original architect was known for his
flamboyant interiors, the message did not reach Ceferino
Gutierrez when he added the twelve-sided dome 140 years
later.
A few more views of the dodecagon:
Most of the Church iconography comes in threes and most dome
edges have four pillars -- this makes the four evangalists
quite popular as we see here. Below we see the
inner dome's unadorned stone work and simple mooring for
its fancy chandelier...
Let's get a little closer to a couple of the four
evangelists. John is to the right with his symbol: the
eagle, also adopted for other reasons by the nation of
Mexico.
To the right of the altar hang many large religious
pictures, not particularly distinguished; however their folds
suggest that they were once spirited away ahead of looters
during one of the anti-clerical revolutions.
A Gated Community
The entrance to the cloistered community is behind this
gate on the right side of the nave.
At the far end of the nave, opposite the altar rises this
gate in what would ordinarily be a choir. It's the
private chapel of the nuns who can be heard singing here
during services.
The cloistered chapel sits atop this painting of Mary
ascending into heaven being waved off by the apostles.
A grand exit!
Next door is the convent cloister, now the cultural center
that Miguelinos call "El Nigromante" but whose real name is
Bellas Artes. To see this,
click
here.
