Albuquerque daily citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1895-1903, 1903-06-13
Early Times of III
o'" o's. ss%. S''" Albuquerque

ured steps and a self c~astigation;
three more steps, a continuance of the
stroke; at each step the whip being
laid over the opposite shoulder, these
people blindly made their way toward
the church, guided solely by the voices
of their chanting leaders, LOS Her
manos de Luz" a by-order of the Peni-
tentes.
experimenting all. and directly in
rear of the flagelants, was he whose
| duty it seemed to be to see that pun
ishment was properly and sufficiently
inflicted.
At the crossing of each %irrigating
ditch, by some unheard order, the pro-
cesion would halt, when each scourge
would be moistened, and each bleeding
back drenched by the mayordomo so
that upon resuming the march, down
the back, through the blood stained
breechclout, over the thong bound
tins, through the holes of which the
morbidly enlarged flesh protruded,
flowed the miniature composite rivu-
lets of blood, blood stained water and
pain produced ~perspiration, making a
well defined CORY trail, covering the
trail of the cross,
At one of these halts the mayOrdomo
made with his closed hand the sign
of the cross, upon the back of two of
his people and Immediately appeared
a bloody cross of about a six inch
beam and four inch cross beam, only
to disappear almost instantly in a
blotch of blood, which at every after
stroke became more eXhuberant.
Whether this sign was made to indi-
cate that the self c~astigation was not
being made sufficiently severe vas a
question. Later | found that no naked
hand had marked the cross of blood,
that it was not to give greater force
to the muscular arms of the flagellant;
not that more blood should flow or the
whip thongs bite more severely, but
was the official seal affixed to the only
certificate of a membership in the
order;rhat the instrument was a knife
and the impression so deep that II
would suffice for a long time.
The blinded cross bearer was moi
!, castigated regularly. Flooding alonl
the rutted, rock strewn road, STUN
bling often, falling at the approach o
a small bridge he arose with his bur
/ den. His down going the first ant
t second times seemed to have beef
careful and purposely. His third
= fourth and fifth falls were from ex
/ haustion growing greater each time
At any hesitancy to arise he was aide
5 bv the scourge, well laid on, eacl
stroke bringing additional blood. BE
ing unable to life his burden, 1t wa
lifted by his Brothers of Light an
placed again upon his naked, lacerate'
= shoulder.
= Thus went the procession to tn
0 church and into the church, where tn
flagellants Frustrated themselves upo
= thee arthen floor before the altar, an
e while PROSTATE each received upo
e his scourged back three additions
[ strokes "in nomine patri, ct fllio, {
e spiritu sancti," after which they aros
and disappeared through a side doc
e to meet on the morrow-GoOd Frida
again to take up their burdens an
their march TO a secluded, pre-selecte
G spot for the enactment of the fina
scene of the Way of the Cross.
At an earlier day the selected VII
e tim was actually nailed to the eros
the cross planted, and the victim dI
d he live that long, allowed to hang fo
about thirty minutes. Later rawhid