A glimpse inside the private world of Los Hermanos Penitentes
The Catholic tradition of Lent has been celebrated for centuries in New Mexico, since Spanish colonists established the first Catholic missions here and throughout many other parts of the Americas. This 40-day religious holiday, held from early March through mid-April, observes the 40 days when Jesus is said to have fasted in the Judaean wilderness near the Jordan River. It’s also a time when the centuries-old Catholic fraternity, Los Hermanos Penitentes, is active in its own celebrations.
The Penitentes, a private Catholic because the Penitentes believe that brotherhood, is wholly unique worship is a private matter, and to Northern New Mexico and that no one should not seek approbation southern Colorado. While its date for one’s sacred endeavors.” of origin has been debated, they Regarding worship, Tate said Penitentes have been in the area for hundreds “practice their worship by of years and are centered around reenacting the events that led up community and penance, a Catholic to Christ’s crucifixion and entombment…” sacrament involving the confession All prayers and singing of sin, self-punishment and are done in Spanish. forgiveness. Charles Carrillo, a hermano
“As a child, in hearing what mayór in Abiquiu and a historian, they call the alabados, the prayers said that other sects of Penitentes or the chants. They sounded...a practice in other parts of the world little sad,” said Tim Rivera, longtime that have Spanish influence, such operator of Rivera Family as Mexico and the Philippines. Funerals and Cremations in Taos. “They’re not all the same organization, “As a child, I remember being a but they come out of, if little scared of the sounds of the you will, that medieval tradition. prayers. But as I grew older ... I And that’s why I say that the New realized how beautiful and oldworld Mexican tradition was formed the prayers and chants were. right after 1800 as a formal organization,” They were extremely rhythmic and said Carrillo. healing in a lot of ways.” Carrillo said the majority of historical
Rivera grew up above the accounts about the history funeral home his parents founded of Los Hermanos Penitentes are and which he later took over. inaccurate and sometimes sensationalized. When someone would die and was brought into the home, he said “The historians…are not people he would hear prayers and singing that have looked into archives. And of the Penitentes below him. they’ve just done a lot of guessing,” When he was a child, Rivera said said Carrillo. the Penitentes were more active in Carrillo said that a Franciscan the Taos community. They would priest, Fray Atanasio Dominguez, come to the bedside of someone penned close to 1800 pages in 1776 dying and give prayer. Those experiences detailing every religious organization continue to resonate with and aspect in New Mexico Rivera. during a three-year stay.
According to the 1985 book, “He goes into every mission “Penitente Self-Government,” by church…he counts chasubles… Thomas J. Steele and Rowena A. everything. He’s anal. He lifts every Rivera, sometime in the early-tomid-1800s bed sheet and turns over every “practically every Spanish mattress,” said Carrillo. village” in Northern New Mexico Carillo said not a single performed a “set of penitential mention of the Penitentes was ceremonies to commemorate the made. “The documents don’t lie,” passion and death of Christ.” Historian said Carrillo. and Taoseño Bob Romero Nearly 60 years later, in 1833, said they coalesced as a result of Padre Martinez of Taos wrote a organized fraternities and societies letter to his superior in Durango, from Spain. Mexico, which was where the
The 1965 book “The Penitentes headquarters of all the churches of the Sangre de Cristos” by Bill in New Mexico were based at the Tate states the Penitentes “devotions time. In the letter, Padre Martinez are observed usually in secret warned his superior about
Northern New Mexicans during Lenten season. Carillo said that Padre Martinez went on to say, “do not be surprised by the men who belong to the Hermandad de Sangre de Christo, the Brotherhood of the Blood of Christ, who could go about villages carrying large crosses and flagellate themselves.”
Carrillo believes the true Penitentes organized more recently than the group that started under Spanish colonizer Juan de Oñate in the late 1500s.
“In the Catholic world at the time of Oñate, everybody and their monkey’s uncle — including the parakeets in the cages — engaged in corporal penance,” said Carrillo. “Corporal penance is not an organization. It’s a ritual.”
Another historical aspect of Penitentes that Carrillo is adamant about correcting is that the Penitentes are not a Franciscan Order. “We have Franciscan spirituality in the hermandad, but there’s nothing in the hermandad rulebook or practices that is Franciscan. It’s not Franciscan at all,” said Carrillo.
According to New Mexico State Historian Rob Martinez, Padre Martinez was a defender of the Penitentes. Padre Martinez’s superior, Bishop Zubiría, was not a fan of the Penitentes, said Rob Martinez, who is also a descendant of Padre Martinez’s younger sister.
“[Bishop Zubiría] called what they did a butcher shop, because Martinez had said they’d whip themselves and cut their backs… again it was penance, but Martinez felt that excessive,” said Martinez.
Padre Martinez helped organize the Penitentes more through moradas, which are windowless religious meeting places.
According to Martinez, Archibishop Lamy was a “pretty strict, rigid and puritanical” Frenchman that Padre Martinez defended the Penitentes from as well. Martinez said Lamy initially thought New Mexicans were “barely Catholic” and more “pagan” and wanted the Penitentes to follow stricter rules.
However, even Lamy, who was a critic of the brotherhood, had created a set of rules for them that are mostly followed to this day “number one, because the Bishop of Mexico in the 1830s did not approve. Number two, because we became part of the United States as the Americans here thought us somewhat exotic, pagan, and violent and bloody. So these practices were further driven underground. Number three, Archbishop Lamy was not a fan…and targeted them,” said Martinez.
More criticism of the Penitentes came with the increasing American presence in the southwest. There was unwanted speculation and accounts of the practices, according to Carrillo.
“It started to change, and that’s when the moradas came about before Mexican Independence, and that change took place in 1821 — with people moving from the east, who were predominantly Protestant —[during] the westward expansion of the United States,” said Romero.
Romero said after American expansion, the Penitentes became more private with their practices, but are still centered in the community. “They continue to serve the community with rosaries when there’s a death in the family, and particularly active during Lent in the Holy Week, with processions, or the praying of the stations to the cross,” said Romero.
Typically more than a dozen men make up each morada chapter. Carrillo estimates there are around 35 active moradas in the area and other Penitentes believe there to be more. He said that the Penitentes do not recruit and is hopeful that the next generation will continue to join the practice.
“People see what we do, they like what we do and they ask us if they can be part of us. That’s how we recruit — by actions and not by asking people to come and join us. So my hope and my prayer is that the hermandad continues way into the future, but it’s all going to be dependent on the next couple of generations if they’re willing to step up to the plate,” said Carrillo.
Carrillo was trained as an archeologist and grew up in a Catholic family in Albuquerque. He went to Abiquiu as an archaeologist and fell in love with the area. He said he joined the Penitentes because he “loved what they were doing.” He said the group forced him to think and pray in Spanish, a lifeline to the unique Catholic traditions of this part of the world.
“Everything about Hispaño New Mexico is summed up with the hermandad. Because all the traditions are kept alive with the Hemandad. To me, who’s very concerned about cultural preservation, not because I was trained as an archaeologist, but because I want my ancient traditions of my ancestors to survive. They’re the quintessential keepers of the flame, if you will,” said Carillo.
Martinez said there were several efforts by some to “get rid of” the Penitentes. Ultimately, he said those efforts failed.
“They’re part of the spiritual, religious and cultural DNA of New Mexico. You really can’t take them out,” said Martinez.
David Fernandez de Taos, who has written the “Blessing Way” column for the Taos News for many years, is a Northern New Mexico spiritual historian. In a written statement, Fernandez explained the significance Los Hermanos are to the area:
“I believe that certain several centuries-old Norteño religious Sociedades and Fraternidades including Los Hermanos continue in our present era as foundational, vital and living spiritual elements of our communities in the Taos and broader regions of El Norte and beyond. Many do not realize or understand that these groups have also been and continue to be part and parcel of El Norte’s Hispanic and Spanish-language legacy and story dating back to the 15th and 16th Centuries A.D., and they continue to generate muchneeded inspiration, uplifting, and blessing for our time and for the future...Que sigue la ¡Bendición por Los Hermanos y Las Hermanas del Norte!”
‘People see what we do, they like what we do and they ask us if they can be part of us. That’s how we recruit — by actions and not by asking people to come and join us. So my hope and my prayer is that the hermandad
continues way into the future, but it’s all
going to be dependent on the next couple of generations if they’re willing to step up
to the plate.’
CHARLES CARRILLO
Historian and hermano mayór in Abiquiu