THE MIRACLE OF THE VIRGIN

On the morning of May 9, 1636

They had within sixty-three years since Don Juan de Garay founded the city of Santa Fe, and the humble village sits on the cliff by the river had been enduring the hardships Quiloazas own pioneers in strange lands. The site showed his difficulty communicating with the routes to Cordoba and Tucuman, periodically threatened by floods and consequent isolation. That group of men and women who worked, fought, loved, raised their children and left their bones in this land, only aspired to a life with less deficiencies and dangers, but many have doubted the chances of survival of the city.

The morning of that May 9, in the churches of thick rough mud walls and concluded Santa Fe masses were heading towards their duties, the men around their farms, the women to their housework, Spanish peninsular , Creoles, Mestizos, Indians and black slaves entrusted struggled to rip off the land, tending their cattle, raised walls, cut read or worked in many different crafts to supply a small company that almost everything should be available in their own site, except for occasional luxuries that pruning be decorated tableware, textiles, books, religious images to get a load of trade.

In the temple of the Society of Jesus, built on the east side of the Plaza Mayor from 1610, a priest prayed kneeling before an altar located next to the Epistle. About the same as an altarpiece, a painting highlighted with the image of the Immaculate Virgin. Father Pedro de Helgueta, born in faraway Pamplona for the rector and the emerging schools served by the temple, raised his eyes to look at the picture that not long ago given bean a brother of his Order.

Given what you see, the priest's face went from contemplation to wonder, after guess who was facing more than just an effect of humidity. From the middle of the image, almost from the Virgin's waist down, sprouting water droplets join to form shiny threads, which meanders down the dripping wet surface and finally the altar. Helgueta wet a cloth with this fluid and found that continued gushing sweat which miraculous spring or inexhaustible.

Shortly after standing by the table and the other Jesuits who served in the city. The number of witnesses was growing as fast as the tenor of exclamations and comments awakened the phenomenon. Many crossed themselves and some gave thanks to God for what he did not seem to be anything other than a supernatural miracle.

Messengers swiftly crossed the square and reported to the authorities. A few minutes later he entered the temple the degree Hernando Arias de Mansilla, Priest and Vicar, the Lieutenant Governor and Chief Justice Alonso Fernndez Montiel, General Don Juan de Garay, son of the founder of the city, the camp master gift Cristóbal de Sanabria and other captains and important neighbors. While all share the excitement of the moment, the father had Helgueta serenity to think about the consequences later what they saw and immediately applied for the settlement in writing of the event. Lieutenant Governor, according to the idea, order the Clerk of the presence of King Juan Lopez de Mendoza, the man responsible for shaping all public documents.

Amid the cries of the already large group, Mansilla Arias stood on a chair and hit the canvas trying to contain the streams of water coming down. The liquid continues to flow copiously and fine courses changed direction in contact with the hand, then continue to decline. They brought cotton and rags, and were hurriedly reached to the Vicar, who licked his teeth on one after another painting and distributing them among the many faithful present, to arrange for that treasured as relics.

There was time to order the ringing of church bells calling the entire population pruning still be outside the event. Men and women of diverse social status came whites, mestizos, Indians and blacks, owners and neighbors shelves, ecclesiastical, military and civilian, elderly and children. Meanwhile, the scribe greater, installed on a nearby table, sat witnessed in an Act, which finally initialed the most important witnesses.

Something more than an hour after its discovery the liquid ceased, leaving many feeling of having witnessed a divine sign. In the months and years after the miracle renewed in them and among their descendants, many cures and favors attributed to the Virgin, either by pleading before her image or directly by the use of cotton soaked with sweat miraculous. Over time, the veneration which aroused the event and its aftermath ended up baptizing the image popularly as Our Lady of Miracles.

A unique heritage

This image, documents describing the event and the relics kept for generations, are, for s same, a precious heritage that testifies material and institutional social importance of religion in colonial Spanish America, and particularly during the years when the Santa Fe was settled in place foundation.

Beyond this cultural value, if we consider it a spiritual heritage is even more crucial. The image is a symbol of the life of the Fe Santa Fe community over the centuries as a traditional feature and deeply rooted in the identity of this town.

For Argentine Jesuit, Our Lady of Miracles is considered a guiding image, covering her figure evangelizing experience rioplatense colonial period, helping to maintain long-term memory during expulsion of the religious order, and chairing the social and educational work recent times. In Santa Fe, the image is the symbolic heart stronger local Jesuit heritage, witnessing the presence of the followers of Ignatius among us, from the early seventeenth century to the present, through the College of the Immaculate Conception.

Transfer and retention crisis

The vicissitudes of history moved in many ways this heritage Santa Fe. Suffice it to recall that between 1651 and 1660 the city moved south to its present location, looking to solve their problems in isolation and need for new land. The old temple where the miracle was abandoned and all buildings of the early Santa Fe and our das not even exist the site occupied since the ro has devoured its slow but steady attrition.

Installed in the new Jesuit church whose irregular white façade stands out today in a corner of the square May 25, occupied a box on the right side altar of the main altarpiece, renewed the worship among the inhabitants of the town shed, as books testify Marian congregation continued to operate there.

With the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767, property and assets of the order passed under civilian control or temporarily closing for a long time the church and school. To prevent deterioration and return to public worship, Our Lady of Miracles was transferred to the Mother Church located a short distance behind a claim of the Order of Mercy returned to the old Jesuit church. Mercy Priests custody until the termination of its members in the area, so again the temple was closed for over a decade. Finally there was the return of the Jesuits in Santa Fe, who reopened his temple and school following an agreement with the provincial government in 1862.

Celebrating its 300 years of sweat, in 1936, the statue of Our Lady of Miracles was carried in triumph to the square May 25, crowned as a form of tribute, in the midst of a solemn ceremony with great participation. This time it recognized the importance of the Santa Fe community box and installed it in the central niche of the main altar of the temple, enhanced by a built monumental bronze frame carved in matte, sixty-foot high by two meters fifty of wide, playing in their art forms of the Jesuit missions with interlocking sheets of high-profile and a shield with the symbol of Mary. This work, made in the workshops of Joseph F. Piana, was incorporated since the local heritage of religious art.

The picture of Our Lady of Miracles

The painting with the image of the Virgin in the Flemish style, with a European face pink with symbolism or allegory of a passage in Revelation, was held in the old Santa Fe by the Jesuit Brother Louis Berger, probably between 1634 and 1635. Material consists of a thick cotton cloth and a thick piece, resting on a fixed frame of 133 hardwood high by 96 inches wide, which is nailed to the back iron studded handmade . Technically the painting has characteristics of stability, having been made to read a very noble material treatment, pigment-based preparation of dyes and organic substances mixed with quality oils and resins, probably brought from Europe or a major center of America, which shows the author's desire to ensure the permanence of his work.

In mid-1980, teacher and restorer Angel N. Werlen proceeded to analyze the state of the paintings found in good condition as only treatment required refreshed from the threads of the fabric, found them very dry. It could also confirm what has been said by Father Guillermo Furlong in the decade of 30, in the sense that the work presents some retouching and restoration, having been repainted in the dark area surrounding the image and layers of clothing, for their hand, face, hands of Mary and the angels located on the bottom, no evidence of new layers of paint or glaze.

The good condition of the painting is not only due to the nobility of the materials used but also the related conservation throughout the centuries; important to state that since the eighteenth century the canvas is framed by glass, preserving the environment from adverse Santa Fe environment.

The written testimonies

Historical documentation stating the sweat event two minutes consists primarily an ecclesiastical-civil and prepare it May 9, 1636. The characteristics of these public documents, having been completed the legal requirements for their preparation and subsequent validation, the testimony becomes important and uncommon rigor, and reflect the concern of the authorities involved to put on record in accordance with the legal and little institutional.

Cabildo and Santa Fe Church wished to leave his good name and honor safe from further questioning, in a historical moment in which the Council of Trent (1545-1564) Bean warned about the excesses committed in the qualification of miracles and abuse in the sale of relics. A time of confrontations with the Protestant Reformation movement that forced the Catholic dogma and extreme to assert its control over internal discipline, avoiding exposing vulnerabilities to critics of papal authority.

The report issued by the civil courts, represented by Lieutenant Governor and Chief Justice Alonso Fernndez Montiel (highest authority to chair the city council) is a document drafted and endorsed by the Clerk of the King, Public and Government- Don Juan Lopez de Mendoza. It bears the signature and subsequent approval of the Lieutenant Governor cited several witnesses and more, all captains and senior officials.

Although the acid content of the ink has eaten away part of the role of attorney, a comparative study with little local papers could be checked for authenticity of signatures and even identified the handwriting of the scribe, characterized by a deed of procedural, common use at that time (1)

The document was donated by Dr. Martn Rodrguez Galisteo to the Jesuits in 1914, after having treasured for many years his family. Now preserved in the field of Miracles Church and College of the Immaculate Conception, being exposed for public veneration in the annual celebration each May 9, constantly preserved within a metal frame and sealed between two panes.

The text begins with the identification of scribe own style as usual:

"I Juan Lopez de Mendoza Escriuano King
Lord nro shelf in this Prov Santafee City of Rio de la Plata
I certify and witness of truth to all that this Vieren ... "

And in its essential paragraphs gives a detailed account of the event:

"... I get closer to find out more on the truth, and saw that the Lien? Oe Ymagen from what saith the waist down was in a lot of water such as streams, or streams of water by all the Best and Parties lien? or, and Mores clear that much of the joy hazia people, there was admiring and thanking God for what the said Vicar vian sepuso vna feet on chair that gave him the same effect, came with his hand to these streams of water stopped running and running for different parties in abundance seen by the Father Rector and others Pedano truxeron yvatomando cotton and the Vicar with his hand that was playing the yen sweat or water, and gave to The cotton relics all these people who were there and although much more water was cleaned and all this ..... eldicho Lien? oe Ymagen not in any way vmedeció chest or face, but was thin and dry as if it was not wet the rest of Lien? or, and that this notorious fuesse Wonder and miracle and celebrated with a party, replicating the said church bells ....." (2)

Regarding the report issued by ecclesiastical justice, represented on the opportunity by Mr. Hernando Arias de Mansilla, Cura benefited vicar and ecclesiastical judge (the highest authority of the diocese based in the city), was endorsed by d? To the next by the same acting clerk in the civil record.

The Vicar also describes in detail the extraordinary success and attitude, high level coinciding with civil document:

"... And fuy to see what it was, and coming to the Altar and Image, video Bliss Image be sweating, and feeling with your hands for more certainty, I wet my fingers, and ran the water comes from the sweat thread by thread quasi many parts as much of the city, the voice that had gathered men and wives assi Indians, blacks to see this prodigy, he saw all, and I, the vicar said, personally taking fuy relics, and distributing to the people who asked, picking up the remaining cotton sweats soaked and wet from the sweat, and this big sum, without power to cut to stem big time ..... and for the record at all times of pedimiento the very Reverend Father Pedro de Helgueta, Superior of the Collegio, of this, and it's truth that passes in sight of the eyes in my presence, which is dated ut supra "(3)

The original of this act has not been found but its text is known as a valuable copy drawn up the same year is an official transfer dated November 6, 1636 and signed by those civil and ecclesiastical authorities. Added In compiling a list of the first thanksgiving or cures attributed to the image of the Virgin and the use of his relics. All documentation is due to the efforts of the Father Helgueta in their quest to gain approval and classification of events as a real miracle.

The pieces above were analyzed as evidence by the highest authority of the diocese, Bishop Fray Cristobal de Aresti, who after consulting the people "learned, science and conscience", was issued by Order of November 22, 1636, giving approval so that "they can put these miracles in the Church" (4).

Beyond the analysis and discussions that may arise around this qualification event as supernatural, much more from the perspective of a society that has undergone a strong process of secularization in all its structures, the miracle is a historic Santa Fe community heritage Which brings us the voices of the past. His image of water flowing, welling and unmistakable symbol of life, talks about faith and hope of those who have already left.

Citations and notes

(1) The author acknowledges the advice and cooperation of Professor Victor H. Arevalo Jordan, paleographic study and documentary in 1984.
(2) The text is transcribed respect, as far as possible, the original script: Furlong, William, SJ "Our Lady of Miracles." S. of Routledge, New York, 1936, pp.56-57)
(3) Ib? Dem, pp.58-59.
(4) Ib? D., p.69.