Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1898-04-29
FANATIC "PENITENTS"
Lenten Mysteries Of New Mexican
M0untaineers.
Religious Orgies Which Rival Medieval
Tortures Still Extant in Our Own Country.

To have witnessed the Passion Play
as enacted in several parts of Bavaria
and Hungary once in a decade is an
achievement that Americans boast for
long years. But there are probably
few Americans who known that within
the confines of their own nation there
takes place annually during the last
week>or the Holy Week, of the Lenten
season, passion play that is by far
the most fanatically barbarous of any
thing like it in the world. Compared
with the passion play of the strange re-
ligious sect of the lonely mountain val
leyS and canyons of New Mexico, the
scenes at Oberammergau are childish
and simple. The New Mexican passion
play deserves to rank with the self-in
flicted religious tortures of the fakirs
of India, and it is all carried out with
its frightful pain from savage zeal to
observe the canonS of selfdenial and
modification of the flesh in the forty
days previous to Easter Sunday, says a
writer in the Boston Transcript
The Penitentes of New Mexico num-
Der some six or seven hundred. They
are a pastoral people and gain their
| livelihood from their nocks and herds
and from little crude mining of prec-
| ious metal in the Ration and San lo-
renZo mountains of Northern New
MeXico-tifty and sixty miles away
| from any railroad and as far removed
| from the world as if they lived in the
| heart of Africa. They are a mixture
of the native Indian and the Mexican
| races. Isolated as they have been since
| the days Of the Spanish conquest of the
Southwest by Coronado and Cortez i'll
1912. they have naturally become in
| tensely superstitious and higoted. Very
| few of them can read and their talk
| is a mixture of Indian and Spanish
| The name Penitentes is the short for
| Los Hermanos Penitentes CHE brother
| hood of penitents or the penitential
| brothers) The spirit of the sect was
| brought to America by the conquista-
| doreS. who came to conquer Mexico and
| the Southwest in 1887. The same spirit
| was manifest in the societies for self
| llagellation in Spanish and Italian COM
munities in the Middle Ages The
Jesuit padres brought the doctrines of
| flagellaton to the new world, and the
| aSceticism took deep root among the
| coloniStS in what is now Colorado, New
| Mexico and Arizona. Until the years
of the building of railroads through the
| Southwest the order of the Penitentes
WaXed in numbers and grew sterner
and more fanatical each year Then
| when immigration of the Yankees and
| English poured into the valleys of Col
| orado and New Mexico, and churches
and missionaries became more plenti-
| full. the Penitentes lessened in numbers
and their order was confined to a few
| hundred people among the remote and
secluded mountains of Northern New
Mexico. The sightseer who would now
| see the barbaric obSerVanceS of Holy
Week among the Penitent brothers
must go to the quaint adobe and stone
built communities of Taos. Cubero and
| Ration, and undergo a long. hard jour
ney on horseback along rugged noun
| tain trails. Even when he gets there he
| must exercise prudence and caution in
| attempting to witness the savage rites
of the strange brotherhood. Taos and
| its neighborhood are said to have about
1000 Penitentes. including many wom-
en-. and here their practices are carried
| to the extreme.
For over two hundred years the Peni-
| tentes made the stone mission church
| in Taos the meeting place of their or
| der, but the bishop at Albuquerque is
sued so many and such threatening or
| derS against the practices of the broth
| erhood that fifteen years ago they
| abandoned the church. and now meet
| in what they call the ''morada' on the
outskirts of the town. To this day one
may see red ana black stains on the in
side walls of the church, where the
blood of Penitentes spatteled while
| they used to scourge and slash their
flesh during the Lenten seasons
During most of the year the Penten-
ties are SO quiet that their silent
"moradas" with broken crosses seat
| tered about them. are the only evil
dences of their existence. With the be-
| ginning of Lent they renew their ac-
tivity with ceremonies and professions,
| which reach their climax during Holy
| Week.
In those exercises liable to he seen by
spectators, the brothers doing penance
try to conceal their identity hy black
| cloths thrown over he head and tied
| about the neck. OF late years the
younger generation has developed
many unbelieVerS. whose soothing seems
| to hunt the PenitenteS more than their
! sell imposed tOrtureS. The brothers
may also have some fear of the dis
| pleasure of the church. and it is quite
probable they wish to mystify the peo-
| pie, but it is generally known among
their friends who the penitentS are.
| During the early days of Lent the
| performances of the Pententes are
| comparatively mild, but in Holy Week
all the ferocity of this peculiar order
is put into practice On a foothill at
some distance from the brotherhood
| house is planted a rude cross to repre-
sent Calvary. Day after day process
sions march from the lodge to the cross
and back, its members doing penance
| in variety of hideouS ways, as the
| fancy of the individual NAV suggest
In many places that have been invaded
| 10y railroads and Americans these cere-
monies are performed at night and in
isolated localities.
a scene that is commonly Witnessed
is the march of the fiagelants. 1t is
| wonderfully strange and weird 1t con-
of