The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-08-19
SAINT TERESA HEALS.
So It Is Said, No Matter How
She Effects 1t.
POWER AMONG THE POOR
Mexican Government Consid-
ers Her a Dangerous Person.

Denver. Aug. 1s-For the last ten years
Santa Teresa, the healer, has been credited
by the Mexican authorities with being the
head and front of every uprising which has
taken place among the Indians of Sonora
and Chihuahua She is described as a
modern Joan of Arc, wearing a modified
cowboy costume. with short skirt, brilliant
'kerchief, and wide sombrero, leading a
horde of Yaquis and beariu a charmed life.
Today she is the reputed leader of the re-
VOTED tribes Ten years ago, when they
were last in arms, she was charged with
the same offense
That the Indians Of her native state be-
lieve In and reverence her as saint there
Is no doubt, and she was exiled from Mexi-
CO In 1891 because Of influence among them
But in 1885, when Teresita, as her followers
love to call her, was popularity supposed to
be hidden among her savage warriors, a
newspaper correspondent found her quietly
practicing the role of healer at Ell Paso,
Tex, and she assured him that she had
never witnessed battle, nor been Concern
ed in revolt: had never ordered a revolu-
tion, or contributed to one The bloody
battle of Tomochic was fought because
Mexican governor and a priest ATTEMPTED
to take from the native church some an
Client pictures placed there by Spanish
priests hundreds Of years ago, when the
Indians drove the officers away.
The Tomochics, the race Of nv father"
she said, "for we are not Yaouis-the live
far to the west of the Tomochic-believed
the troops were tyrants and slew them
BY order Of President Diaz, the governor
and gneral sent me and my father out Of
Mexico without trial when 1 had done
nothing against order. We were allowed
later to return to another district; but
four years ago, when trouble occurred
hundreds OF miles from me, we were sent
TO Arizona, and there 1 healed the sick
until in the summer, when came to Ell
Paso"
1t was about the same time that Profess
scr MCGEE OF the Tilted States Bureau of
Ethnology obtained a personal interview
with the living American saint He had
gone to South Arizona for the purpose of
studying the Papago Indians, but heard 50
much Of the saint and her marvellous DOW
ers that he went some miles out of his
way to get sight of her. At her settle
ment he had heard strange saories of her
powers. The legend is that she Is young
and beautiful and never grows any older,
and that she is at least in part divine.
She had never been a child, but was born
grown up. Wherever she went good luck
came the fields smiled with a plentiful
harvest, and the horses and cattle did not
get sick There was no physical aiIment
in human beings which she could not cure.
Professor MCGEE found her at the Bosque
Ranch, near Tubac, fifteen miles north of
the international frontier. She was as
beautiful as had been reported. Mexican
IN hue, with large handsome eles-hypnotic
some people called them-raven-haired tall
ana slender and clad in calico prints upon |
which no time had been lost in fitting
a type of Mexican whose blodd has come |
down through Spanish and Astec ances- |
tors. She wore no jewelry except a pair |
or gold earrings; her hair was banged in |
the style of the younger Mexican women,
but OF vanity there was no trace There |
was nothing in her appearance to indicate
fierce or warlike intentions, but she looked
rather as one whose loving Kindness to all
had left his mark upon her face, stamped
It with puriay and gentleness, the beauty
Of holiness.
'Si. senor,' she said, ''I am Teresa. but I
am not saint; that It is my frienIs call
me because I am able to help some of
them" Her belief in her miraculous pow
ers OF healing was firm. She asserted that
Turing an attack OF fever when she was
sixteen years of age and had been deserted
~ her first and only lover, she had seen
he Virgin Mary ina vision and had re-
'eived from her the mysterious potentcy.
Since her infancy in the mountains of
sonora the superstitious Idinas had mary
led at some Of her attributes and when
The told of the sights she had seen in her
vision they almost deified her. The Arch
nigel Gabriel appeared to her in a latr
rance as young man and delivered her
! letter which urged all TO repent of their
ins, believe in Jesus. and they would be
ured from sickness. This letter was az
EDWARDS printed. and copies Of It were
distributed, the possessor OF one feeling
yer safe from harm.
But Teresa does not lay claim to any
ubsequent visions
THE people believed that was a saint
he said. land 1 felt that God had wiled
hat should heal them and when they
sked me did so. No. do not believe
rayer Is necessary. nor does one have to
'elieve in me to be cured"
Teresa told Professor MCGEE that she
egan with aiding the sick and afflicted as
NY nurse would do. but found that her
Ouch did good. and she got In the habit
( cuhing by that means. In some cases, 8
specially chronic disorders, she annoint- :
d. No particular ceremony was employed ,
n amounting: she merely moistened the :