The temple above is not a parish church but rather an
Oratory, a special church devoted to preaching.
Greatly expanded in 1712, today the Oratorio of San
Filipe Neri it is San Miguel's most active house of
worship.
[35]
The secularist
In front of the
Oratorio stands this statue, most likely of Saint Philip
Romolo Neri who lived ascetically through 80 years of 16th
century Italy, founding a most unusual congregation.
Most religious orders required members to take vows including
that of poverty, where all property would be held by the
congregation in common. The antithesis of the
organizational man, Philip went the other way: priests would
remain
secular; not
only would they be able to hold property, but they would be
required to pay for their meals at the common table by
a monthly contribution. They could leave the Congregation or
the Oratory anytime they wanted. Groups spun out from
his were to remain autonomous and he even refused to write up
the rules of his group (but his followers did after his
death).
His priests were
secular and devoted to preaching. They conducted
services in a hall called an
oratorio. Originally their
services called for four long sermons, but these were soon
shortened to a half-hour
each. When a bell rang, the priest shut up. Then
the music started and these special compositions became known
as
Oratorios.
(Yes, that
Messiah thing.) Priests were discouraged from
the "fire and brimstone" approaches and told to talk of love,
sneaking in corrective actions rather than dwelling on their
congregations sins. As in America's mega-churches of
today, this "theology lite" took off. Oratories spread
throughout Europe. (Today there are still
70 -- still with no central
authority. Philip was not an organizational man;
each community was to be pretty much autonomous.)
The Jesuits took the opposite tack with a traditional
religious order controlled from a central authority,
often called the Black Pope. Both Philip's and
Ignatius's followers found success in battling the Protestant
Reformation, at least until the Jesuits were disbanded.
Philip's Oratories stayed including this one in San
Miguel even after the Spanish King expelled the Jesuits in
the 18th century.
The stolen church
The
facade resembles somewhat that of the Cathedral of
Zacatecas with columns decorated with fungus on the top story and wrapped leaves below.
Note the "new" facade typical of the second stage of Mexican
baroque.
San Miguel created its Oratorio in 1712 when it invited a
famous preacher from the town of Patzcuaro to deliver a
series of Lenten sermons. Don Juan Antonio Perez de
Espinoza did such a good job that the Miguelinos invited him
to stay. They picked this site; unfortunately there was
already a church here -- one built by the mulattoes,
descendants of the African slaves brought from the West
Indies to this area to man the mines -- the local indigenous
people refused to do that work. The mulattoes called
their chapel "Ecce Homo."
[221]
The mulattoes objected, of course. But when they came
to court to protest, the scroll upon which they had outlined
their case turned out to be blank when unrolled!
This miracle of omission was taken as a sign that the
Oratorio was to take over their humble church.
[37]
Below is a close-up
of the upper stories. The tower repairs are paid for by
the Mexican government (since it owns the outside of the
churches after nationalizing church exteriors and land
in the 1860s.)
The facade is
constructed of rose quarry stone.[234]
At right is
the statue in the east alcove. This saint carries both
scripture and saber.
The Mulatto Church
Above and below are photos of the old (east) facade of the
Mulatto church (Hermandad de Mulatos --Brotherhood of the
Mulattos
[234]); this was
their entrance until the Oratorio expanded the building and
added the larger south facade. While not unadorned, the
stone carving is simpler. The angel below is thought to
have an indigenous nose.
To some extent, the poor have taken this church back while
the rich have moved on to the church of
San Francisco (
click
here to get there).
The spires and domes of the Oratorio
The Oratorio has a lot of vertical activity but little
architectural consistency on the outside. The
checkerboard paint reduces the monotony of the lower spire
but does steal some of the impact from its neo-classical top.
At left and below: The dome over the Casa de
Loreto (which we will discuss later).
Oratorio interior
Inside 33 oil paintings depict scenes from the life of St.
Philip Neri. However, we found most intriguing this
confessional (above) with separate sides for men and women.
The Canals, the town's richest family, once wanted to
establish a convent next door but the Spanish king refused as
it was too near the priests quarters. He was afraid
they might get into bad habits. Eventually the Canal's
oldest daughter started an order of nuns and joined as their
head when she was 16. The order still functions several
blocks away at Las Monjas,
click to go there.
Surprisingly, the most elegant interior among
the hundreds of houses of worship in San Miguel is locked
behind these simple doors. We found an indigenous senior
citizen with a key who opened its riches to us but
discouraged picture taking, otherwise this chapel would
have its own pages.
The chapel is a 1735 replica of the Santa Casa (holy house)
where Mary, the mother of Jesus, lived in the holy land.
The Loreto refers to the Italian town which houses the
400 square foot house where Mary was born and raised.
The house itself was razed in 1291 when Angels grew
sick of the Saracen atrocities committed inside of it. They
flew the Santa Casa from Nazareth, alighting first in the
Balkans and finally at
Loreto in Italy where a large basilica now
shelters this mobile home and Our Lady of Loreto is now the
patron saint of pilots. (Do house movers get a patron
saint? How about the air freight folks?) At any rate,
the faithful and numerous popes believe the place to be
miraculous, giving a new meaning to Papal Bull.
Scholars point out that common people doing
uncommonly good works were called (as is sometimes the case
today)
angels and
the structure most likely was transported by sea. The
materials of Loreto's Santa Casa are those found in Palestine
and not typical of that part of Italy. But this more
mundane version was probably not of interest to the wealthy
Manuel Tomas de la Canal who built this replica to honor the
family's patron saint, the Virgin of Loreto.
[38]
Below is our lone photo of the interior. The
dimensions are exact but the furnishings are a little more
gilded than what the Holy Family lived in. This part of
the chapel is octagonal under the dome seen above.
Somehow these riches were preserved during the various
revolutions when the interiors of many rich churches were
gutted. To defend this place, priests stretched a rope
across its entrance and tied a rosary to it. Somehow
the attackers would not cross that religious barrier.
[40]
Jardin Lauretano
The Oratorio and Casa Sacra frame an atrium called the Jardin
Lauretano, after the Laurel grove that gave the Italian
shrine of Loreto its name. The ornaments here suggest
that the garden was landscaped and furnished in 2002.
We found it to be a restful and nearly empty oasis near
the busy markets. During festivals, the poor camp
here -- near the richest public interior in town.
Below the traditional fountain in the Jardin
Lauretano:
A statue to the Virgin of Loreto(?) stands below modern
lighting and above traditional wrought iron and ceramic
furnishings:
