page_title: Manuel Santa Cruz Loidi
section_title: Colombia
hierarchical_section_title: Manuel Santa Cruz Loidi / Colombia
caption_attribution_description: Español: El Cura Santa Cruz en América
context_page_description: Manuel Ignacio Santa Cruz Loidi was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest. For some 35 years he served on apostolic mission in Colombia, where he was heading a parish in rural interior of the Pasto province; for some 15 years he held also various minor posts in Jamaica. He is best known, however, for his activity in 1872-1873, when he commanded a Carlist guerilla unit during the civil war in Spain. As "cura Santa Cruz" or simply as "El Cura" he gained notoriety for cruelty and in the Spanish public discourse of the late 19th century he became a symbol of savage brutality. In this role – though also with a grade of ambiguity - he featured as a protagonist in a few great works of Spanish Modernist literature of the early 20th century and became a mythical figure long before his own death.
context_section_description: It is not clear in what circumstances Santa Cruz moved to Colombia; one version is that the option was suggested and facilitated by an anonymous, influential Spanish Jesuit and a friend of his. Santa Cruz agreed to join Colegio Javieriano, which served as a Jesuit college and a seminary in Pasto, capital of Nariño department. He arrived in the city in 1892, possibly having spent some time in Panama earlier. In the college he was teaching English, French, Latin, geography and math; his worn-out cassock and a long beard made him look like a beggar. He was not a member of the Jesuit order; his request for admission was turned down, reportedly because his wartime deeds required a long penitence period. Santa Cruz was allowed to enter the monastery and to follow the rules, but his formal admission was adjourned until an unspecified later date.
  Santa Cruz taught in Pasto at least until 1898. The following year Colombia was torn by a Thousand Days’ War, with Pasto turned into a Conservative stronghold dominated by the personalities of Ezequiel Moreno Díaz and Pedro Schumacher, two hardline bishops. According to a Colombian historian both hierarchs approached Santa Cruz, who was known for uncompromising anti-liberal sermons. Santa Cruz was reportedly asked to lead operations against the Liberal insurgents, yet he declined. However, he apparently agreed to assist in some kind of staff work, offering his advice in terms of planning and strategy; in this role he proved very successful.
  Following the ultimate Conservative victory in 1902 Santa Cruz founded the village of San Ignacio, located in the Andes some 20 km north of Pasto in the county of Buesaco; for the second time since the Hernialde spell he assumed the role of a parson. The hamlet was inhabited by an extremely poor indigenous population; it seems that apart from providing spiritual service, Santa Cruz tried to support it economically. Teaching the locals agriculture, he travelled across the county begging, with the money collected dedicated to needs of the San Ignacio natives. Santa Cruz spent some 18 uneventful years in San Ignacio and according to some sources was greatly respected among the locals for his apostolic work but also for his personal humility and exemplary life; his most lasting achievement was construction of the local San Ignacio church.
  Santa Cruz retained his reactionary ultra-conservative outlook; during local electoral campaigns he used to instruct his flock how to dodge the corrupted election system and vote the candidates he considered right. It seems that he also remained a Carlist; he corresponded with his old-time war comrades back in Spain and in a separate letter pledged loyalty to Don Jaime, though there are suggestions he also recognized Don Alfonso. In 1920 he was eventually admitted to the Jesuit novitiate and in 1922 he formally entered the order. It is not clear where Santa Cruz spent his senility; in the Pasto monastery or in San Ignacio, where he was eventually buried in the church he constructed.
caption: Santa Cruz in Colombia
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