Sierra Gorda Part 14 of 14: The Misión San Miguel Concá church interior

Carole views the mission church at Concá. Previously, in Part 13, I showed and explained the fascinating details of the steeple and facade. I also described the mission's location and history. This time, we'll take a peek at some of the interesting features of the interior. The inside of the church has the restrained, even Spartan, style known as Neo-Classic while the exterior has the exuberantly florid Baroque Churrigueresque style. Remodeling of church interiors from Baroque to Neo-Classic often occurred during the late 18th and 19th centuries when architectural tastes changed. 

The apse contains the main altar. The basic structures of many Catholic churches date back to pre-Christian Roman times. Over the centuries, churches like the one in Concá were laid out to imitate the Christian cross. The apse represents the top part of the cross and is located at the far end of the nave from the entrance. This semi-circular space is the main focus of the whole church. The nave is the seating area for the congregants and forms the long part of the cross. The two arms of the transept form the crosspiece. The church dome is centered over the point where the nave and transept intersect. 

The back of the apse has an altar table which contains a reliquary, guarded by two angels on its face and stand-alone angels on either side. A statue of the church's namesake (St. Michael the Archangel) hangs above the altar table, with a crucifix placed a bit higher on the wall. Included within the apse are a speaker's podium and a bishop's chair. Flowers are changed according to seasonal fiestas. There is very little other decoration. Below, I will describe the origins and meanings of many of the church's interior features, including those in the apse, the nave, and the baptismal room.

St Michael wields his sword as he stomps on Satan. The spray of flowers at St. Michael's feet obscures Satan, who is probably represented as a snake or a dragon. As I explained in Part 13, St. Michael is considered the most important of God's angels and is the one who led the angelic army when Satan was ousted from heaven. St. Michael the Archangel was a favorite of St. Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscan Order. St. Francis believed in St. Michael's special powers to combat evil, so images and statues of him appear at many of the Sierra Gorda's Franciscan missions.

A reliquary contains the relics of saints or other sacred objects. The goblet radiating a halo represents the chalice used at the Last Supper. It is guarded by two small angels standing in front of Neo-classic pilasters. A reliquary might contain objects such as fragments of the bones or other objects such as pieces of clothing that the saint wore or may have touched. The original purpose of collecting and protecting such relics was to preserve the memory and sense of holiness of the saint. The intent was to assist worshipers when they prayed for a saint's intersession. Veneration of the relics themselves was not the intention.

However, belief in the magical powers of relics quickly spread in the early church and has persisted among many of today's worshipers. Legends about the power of particular relics grew, and this drew pilgrims from far away who made donations. Church officials soon took notice. As a result, relics became valuable and unscrupulous people trafficked them for profit. In fact, many relics were fake and some were attributed to saints who themselves never actually existed. Sometimes people from one church stole famous relics from another to gain status and attract pilgrims and money. 

A piece of furniture known as a "bishop's chair" is often found in an apse. Its presence is a link to ancient times when chairs were seen as symbols of authority. Until the 4th century AD, Christian believers were severely persecuted. They could only worship in secret and often met in Rome's underground graveyards, called catacombs. Archeologists have found sites in the catacombs where early Christians gathered. In these spaces special seats were carved out of the the rock for the leader of the group. 

After the Emperor Constantine ended the persecution, the church hierarchy began to develop. When officiating, the first bishops sat on a cathedra (Latin for "chair"). The headquarters of a bishop thus became a cathedral. Until the late 18th century, the Franciscan mission churches in the Sierra Gorda, including this one, were not part of the diocese of Querétaro. The Franciscans were a separate religious organization with its own rules and hierarchy. Therefore, a bishop's chair would not have been present in the church at Concá until it was secularized and turned over to the authority of the Querétaro diocese in 1770.

Ceiling of the dome over the transept. It has an octagonal shape, with windows on each of its eight sides. The number eight is significant in both Christian and Jewish beliefs. According to the New Testament, Jesus entered Jerusalem in triumph on Palm Sunday. Eight days later, after his crucifixion, he rose from the dead. There are seven days in a week and the eighth day begins a new week and therefore represents a new beginning, a new order, or a new creation. In addition, there are eight beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount, beginning with "blessed are the poor in spirit...". Many other examples can be found.

Christianity is rooted deeply in the Old Testament and Jewish culture as it existed in the 1st century AD. Eight had been an important number among Jews for centuries before Jesus' time. For example, eight is the first cubic number (2x2x2). Since both the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle and the Jerusalem Temple were of the same height, length, and width, they form a perfect cube. Eight people were saved on the Ark: Noah, his wife, their three sons, and their son's wives. Eight days after an Israelite male child was born, he was circumcised. As with Christianity, there is much more evidence of the importance of the number eight.

View toward the choir loft over the church entrance. At the bottom of the photo, you can see a small amount of decoration on the arch over the entrance foyer. However, there is an almost complete lack of decoration on the walls or ceiling of the nave. This, once again, contrasts with the wildly florid decoration of the exterior of the church. The word "nave" comes from the Latin navis, meaning "ship". The shape of a nave, with its vaulted ceiling, resembles the hull of an upturned ship. The church was seen as a ship, like Noah's ark, carrying the congregants across life's turbulent sea to the safe harbor of heaven. 

Until the 17th century Baroque era, the seating area for choirs was located between the congregants in the nave and the priests in the sanctuary (the altar area). The all-male choir sat in rows of ornate seats along either side of the nave, perpendicular to the congregant seating. However, musical developments in the Baroque period, as well as the addition of women to choirs, necessitated their placement in lofts above and behind the congregants. 

Decoration on the arch over the entrance foyer. This is one of the few decorated areas of the church's interior. Included are ears of corn, one of the sacred symbols of native people. Many pre-hispanic cultures and civilizations believed that the gods had taught humans how to grow corn. This is not surprising, given how essential corn was to the diet of the native population. Without the food surplus provided by the cultivation of corn, many of the ancient New World civilizations may never have developed.

The exquisitely decorated baptismal font. A font is a bowl containing water that rests on a pedestal and is used for baptisms. This one stands in a small room next to a painting of St. Francis. The room is located at the base of the steeple just inside the main entrance of the church. Placing the room near the entrance was intended to remind the faithful that they began as a member of the church congregation through their own baptism. This font is the one originally installed in the 18th century. It is ornately carved and decorated with colored clay. The decoration contrasts with the simplicity of the room and its other contents. 

Like the early seats for Christian leaders, baptismal fonts have also been found in the Roman catacombs. However, the origins of baptism go back even further than Christianity itself. During the Second Temple period (515 BC-70 AD), Jewish ritual practices included washing, sprinkling, bathing, and immersing with water. According to the Bible's New Testament, John the Baptist was following these ancient rituals when he baptized Jesus. As the early Christian movement grew, it developed its own specific meanings for baptism.  Fonts for use in the ritual developed from there.

A cross covered with small photos stands in one corner of the nave. The walls behind the cross are covered by stenciled designs in one of the few decorated sections of the church interior. There was no information available about the people in the photos or why their pictures are attached to the cross. 

One possibility is that they are migrants who have left for the dangerous journey across Mexico's northern border. Attaching their photos to the cross may be a way of praying for their safety. Alternatively, these may be people who have died from disease or violence and their photos may be a prayer for their safe arrival in heaven. Whatever the reason, I found this rustic little display particularly poignant.

Detail of the photos on the cross. Most of the people appear to be young, with a few of middle age. Males predominate, but there is a sizable minority of women and a handful of children. Whoever and wherever they they are, I wish them well.

This completes Part 14 of my Sierra Gorda series and also ends the series itself. I hope you have enjoyed it. If so, please leave any thoughts or questions in the Comments section below or email me directly. If you leave a question, please include your email address so that I may respond in a timely manner.

Hasta luego, Jim

Sierra Gorda Part 13 of 14: Misión San Miguel Concá

Atrium, church, and cloister of Misión San Miguel Concá. The original mission in Concá was established by the Augustinians. However, in 1739 Spanish Col. José Escandon y Helguera reported its poor condition to the Viceroy, so the mission was turned over to the Franciscans.  Concá is the smallest of the five Sierra Gorda missions that they built. The church and cloister seen above were constructed between 1750 and 1754 under the supervision of two friars, José Antonio Murguía and Joaquín Fernández Osorio. As always, the actual labor and craftsmanship were performed by the local Pame tribesmen.

In this posting, I'll show you some of the exterior features, including the church steeple and facade. While there are plenty of Catholic statues and symbols, there are also many unusual indigenous images, some of which relate to pre-Hispanic religious beliefs. The inclusion of these native features was a deliberate strategy of Junipero Serra, the Sierra Gorda's Franciscan chief. He wanted to attract the Pame by incorporating some of their symbols into the way the Christian message was presented. This strategy is called synchronicity. 

Overview

Google map showing the route from Jalpan de Serra to Concá. To reach Misíon San Miguel Concá, take Highway 69 from Jalpan de Serra 36.9km (23mi) to the northwest. When you reach Concá , look for Restaurant Los Arcos on your left. About 100m further is an intersection on the right with a bus stop. Take a left there and follow the street until you reach the mission. For a Google interactive map showing how to get to Jalpan de Serra from the Guadalajara/Lago de Chapala area, click here . 

Steeple

Unlike the other missions, the mission's bellfry has only one level. The octagonal bellfry  has openings for four bells. It sits on a tall quadrangular tower with interesting trompe d'oeil designs painted on its sides. Each bell opening is framed by fluted columns on either side. In the narrow spaces between the columns are relief carvings of vines and there is more vegetation carved along the cornices. Above the capitals on the top of the columns are finials in the shape of flowers. Notice the thin, conical structure with a spiral design in the lower right. I'll talk about this with a subsequent photo.   

The four-petal flowers along the cornices have pre-Hispanic religious meanings. The inclusion of these images were part of Serra's strategy of synchronicity. Four-petal flowers are a common symbol on pre-Hispanic pagan temples. They relate to the belief that the cosmos is based on the four cardinal directions (north, south, east, west) .  

Each of the four directions had its own god, color, and myths. The center of the flower represented a fifth direction: up and down, or heaven and earth. It was also the center of the universe and some believed it was where the rain god Tlaloc lived in a room made of turquoise. I have seen the four-petal flower symbol in the temples of a variety of different pre-Hispanic civilizations, although they are separated by great distances and many centuries.

The conical structure with a spiral design is a finial.  It stands on top of one of the two buttresses that frame the church entrance. Just below the cone is an muscular little creature of uncertain species, with long hair cascading down its back. The figure's posture suggests that it is supporting the base of the cone. On the other side of the entrance is another buttress, topped by another cone and supported by a similar creature. Both are probably related to Pame religious beliefs, which incorporated the animals as well as plants of the Sierra Gorda. 

On the same buttress, but just below, is a comical relief carving . The face of the mop-haired figure has a curling handlebar mustache similar to those worn by Spanish men. This suggests that it is a caricature of a Spaniard. While native people did sometimes grow facial hair, it was generally too sparse to support an extravagant mustache like this. The figure's nose is bulbous, its tongue lolls out, and its arms are widely spread. 

The comical "Spaniard" is bow-legged, as many Spanish men would have been, since they virtually lived on their horses. The Pame artisan seems to have been having a little fun at the expense of his Spanish overlords.  This figure reminds me of a bit of the traditional Purepecha "Dance of the Old Men", which also subtly satirizes the Spanish. On the inside face of each buttress is a double-headed eagle. This was the emblem of the Hapsburg dynasty, whose empire once ruled Spain, its colonial possessions, and much of the rest of Europe. 

A trompe d'oeil design covers the sides of the bell tower . The French term  means "deceive the eye" and refers to an artistic style that produces images that appear to be three-dimensional but are actually in two dimensions. This particular design was popular in 18th and 19th century Mexico. I have seen very similar ones in many colonial and early Republic structures.  

Facade

Like the other missions, this one has a highly decorated facade. There are five niches with statues and one triple statue at the very top. In addition, there are relief carvings of at least four cherubs and a profusion of plants and flowers. In this photo, you can see the two buttresses with conical tops that frame the entrance. The doorway has a trefoil arch, which differs from the smoothly rounded arches of the other four churches. Trefoil arches are architectural features introduced by the Muslim Moors between 711 and 1492, the era when they dominated the Iberian Peninsula.

Four-petal flowers decorate the base of the facade, along with ears of corn.  Corn also had deep meaning to native people. It was the most important food crop of pre-Hispanic Mexico and the agricultural foundation for all of the great pre-Hispanic civilizations. As such, it was viewed as a gift from the gods and various cultures had myths about how and why humans received it. For example, the Aztecs believed corn was given to humans by Quetzalcoatl , the famous Feathered Serpent.

To the left of the entrance, St. Francis stands with a wolf at his side. The statue was beheaded during the Revolutionary era. The wolf is a reference to a legend about St. Francis. When he visited the small Italian town of Gubbio, he  learned of a wolf that had been terrorizing the residents and he persuaded the people to let him intercede. The wolf charged Francis, but stopped when confronted by the sign of the cross. Together, Francis and the wolf visited the town to bring about a reconciliation. The wolf would stop killing and the people would feed it. More four-petal flowers line the wall on the left and above the trefoil arch. 

A statue of St. Anthony of Padua on the right was also beheaded. St. Anthony (1195-1231) was canonized by Pope Gregory IX in the year 1232. This occurred only 11 months after his death making it one of the quickest in history. In many cases, it has taken hundreds of years for someone to become a saint. Anthony was ordained as a priest at a very young age but, after hearing of the martyrdom of several Franciscan friars in Morocco, he decided to join the Franciscan Order. Anthony was famous for being a great preacher and friend of the poor and  became a trusted associate of Francis of Assisi, the Order's founder. 

The Franciscan emblem is located between the top of the door and the choir window. The emblem has been described in my previous posts so I won't cover it here. Just above the emblem are two winged cherubs, one on either side. Each grips a crown with one hand while holding the Franciscan rope in the other. The rope's knots symbolize the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Each knot has five coils representing the Five Stigmata, which were the wounds suffered by Jesus at his crucifixion. Two more cherubs hold curtains open on either side of the choir window.

On the middle left is a niche containing St. Ferdinand. King Ferdinand III (1199-1252) is remembered as a just and tolerant king. He founded the University of Salamanca, as well as hospitals, bishoprics, monasteries, churches, and cathedrals. In addition, Ferdinand often pardoned offenders against his throne. However, he was also a warrior king who fought against the Spanish Moors. Ferdinand III not only defended his realm but expanded it by capturing their city Moorish city of Cordoba. 

While he was King, Ferdinand decided to become a Secular Franciscan. This required him to be a devout Catholic (which he was), but also allowed him to be married and live in the world. When he died in 1252, he was buried wearing his Franciscan habit. Of the 10,000+ people canonized over the last two millennia, only about 60 have been monarchs. This small portion of the list (0.006) is not surprising to me, given how monarchs typically behave, particularly those in power prior to the 20th century.

San Roque, with his dutiful dog, occupies a niche on the middle right.  Also called St. Roch, he was born in 1349 in Montpellier where his father was the local governor. San Roque and his dog also appear on the facade of the mission at Tancoyal. In Part 12, I told the story of this saint and the dog who saved him. His niche is framed by two Solomonic columns with ears of corn hanging on them. Miracles associated with San Roque began even before his birth. His mother was thought to be barren, but miraculously conceived and when the future saint was born, he had a cross-shaped birthmark. 

Saint Michael waves his sword in triumph over Satan. St. Michael, as he is also known, is an Archangel, one of the most important of all angels. According to Catholic belief, he is the leader of God's armies and drove Satan from Heaven. St. Michael is nearly always shown with a sword in his hand and his foot on Satan, portrayed as a dragon. Above, Satan looks like a mountain lion with a semi-human face. The big cat was probably chosen rather than a dragon because the Pame craftsmen would have been familiar with mountain lions. Ears of corn hang down between the columns on either side of St. Michael.

A portrayal of the Trinity tops the facade. According to Catholic belief, the Trinity consists of the Father (God), the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Ghost. None of the three shown above is noticeably larger or dressed differently than the others, However, since God is the most important of the three, I assume he is the one in the center. Each of the three stands with one foot on the ground and the other raised and resting on a globe, presumably representing the world. This oddly casual group appears to be having a nice chat about the events of the day and the future of the cosmos.

This completes Part 13 of my Sierra Gorda series. I hope you enjoyed it. If so, please leave any thoughts or questions in the Comments section below or email me directly. If you leave a question, please include your email address so that I may respond in a timely fashion.

Hasta luego, Jim