14
An American Passion Play
Weird and Barbarous
By HENRY G. TINSLEY
rHIS tells how the Penitentes of ffm
Mexico inflict awful barbarities upon
themselves during the Lenten season
Phese American citizens are placed upon
crosses, slashed with knives and agonized
with cactus thorns.
THE Americans, who count themselves fortunate
in having seen the passion play at any of its pel
formancei once in ten years at Oberannnergan.
probably do not know that there takes place annually
in their own country during the last week of the
Lenten leason and within 350 miles of Denver a
passion play 10 frightfully tierce that the sacred drama
oLtnc German peasant! u simple child's play in com
parison. Among the Raton and Sandia mountains (a south
ern spur of the great Rocky range) m northern New
Mexico. American citizens arc these very days flashing
their flesh, shedding their litcblood. Stokally enduring
excruciating agonies, all because they believe these
torturous barbarities absolve them from past sins and
some future ones,
Thee fanatics number tome 700. They are known
throughout New Mexico as the Penitentei the full
name being Los Hermanns lYnitentes (the penitent
brotherhood). In former years tin re were several
thousand Penitentes, and their annual passion play
a SO lavagely realistic that deaths 01 performers
occurred almost even year.
When lien. Lew Wallace was governor of New
Mexico, in 1878 and 1881, he brought the attention
of the government to the practices of the Penitentes.
Charles F. Lummis, a litterateur of California, secretly
photographed from a distance a party of Penitentes
at San Mateo in 1898, while they were hanging a
brother on a cross, and later Mr. Lummis was shot
by an assassin in the locality. It had become known
to the brotherhood that the former had made the pic
tures and that he purposed using them in a book.
The Penitentes are of Mexican origin, many having
a marked strain of Indian blood. They are densely
ignorant ; very few can read English, and not many
can read Spanish. Scarcely one in ten has ever been
100 miles away from the isolated settlements among
the rugged and barren mountains. They are no more
m sympathy with American spirit than if they lived in
the heart of Africa. Their region is a bit of the
Home of the Hermano Mayor of the Penitentes at San Mateo. N. M.
Middle Ages dropped down in America. This bar
barous order of Penitentes flourishes within a day's
wagon ride from Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico.
The squat adobe houses the headquarters ("moradas")
of the brotherhood are at Taos, San Mateo, Tejuquc
and Santa Maria. The people in this region live in
mud and crude stone houses, as did their ancestors
200 and 300 years ago. Their scanty subsistence
is had from the little flocks of sheep and the bunches
of cattle on the mountain sides round about. A few
of the Penitentes mine at will for gold and silver in a
llipshod way characteristic of the life of everyone in
the region. A man there who can get even ttOO from
the sale of all his worldly goods is a local Dives.
Founded in Spain in 1S0S
THE order of Penitentes had its origin in the
strange spirit of asceticism by flagellation and self
inflicted physical agonies as a means of grace, which
overran Europe in the early part of the sixteenth
century. The order was founded in Spain at about
1508, and was brought to Mexico by the Conquista
dores under Cortez. The Conjuistadores. who had
followed in the wake of Coronado. in 1545, brought
from the City of Mexico the doctrine of serving the
Master by suffering bodily pain and mortification of
the flesh. In the isolation of the Spanish pioneers
among the Indians of the New World, hundreds of
miles from any refining influences, the stern aecetkisai
took quick and deep root. As years passed the Peni
tentes multiplied. Their doctrine of flagellation and
dottMj penance by physical agonies grew fiercer, and
the followers of the cross among the Mexicans and
Indians strove to outdo one another in stoical penances.
While the American colonists were lighting at Hunker
Hill and Vorktown. some 2.0H) Penitentes out iti New
Mexico, cut off from all the world by vast mountains
and trackless desert wastes, Sfere nailing their brothers
to crosses and cutting pieces from one another I Mesh
tor absolution from past and future una.
The building of the Atchison. Topeka and Santa
Fe railroad through New Mexico in 1882 WaS a death
knell to the order. The coming of troops of tourists
with CUriottS eyes, and the influx oi Yankee cattlemen,
gold miners, business men and farmers, have gradually
diminished the ranks of the order and somewhat amel
iorated the savagery as a means of grace.
The Roman Catholic church for twelve cars has
striven bravely ami energetically toward stopping the
practices of the order. Father Brim, who defiantly
labored at San Mateo to disrupt the order, narrowly
escaped assassination several times. The sight-seer,
who would now witness the passion play of Holy
Week among the Penitentes. must go off the beaten
paths of travel to the rude mud and stone-built ham
lets of Taot, San Mateo, CuoerO, TejuqUC, and travel
over grim, lonely and hard mountain roads. Even
when he gets to the region of the Penitentes he must
he cautioUl in his effort to look upon any of the rites
of the brotherhood. Woe be to the person who might
be caught following a band of Penitentes. or listening
to their councils. Charles F. Lummis says that traitors
to the order have been buried alive.
Nowadays Taos (the home and burial place of Kit
Carson ) is the stronghold of the Penitentes. It is
hidden away in the mountains seventy-live miles from
the railroad, and is substantially the same community
it was two centuries ago. The old adobe church oi
Fernandez de Taos was for several generations the
headquarters for several thousand Penitentes. Father
Brim finally stopped such sacrilege in the church when
he went to Taos in 1875, and after he had a persistent
and dangerous battle with fanaticism. To this day one
may see beneath many coats of whitewash the dark
splashes on the interior church walls, reminiscent of
the days when men slashed their flesh during some 200
Lenten seasons. When Father Brim went there the
inner walls were black to his shoulder with stains.
With the advent of
Ash Wednesday the fa
natics of the order come
from the mountain settle
ments and gather secretly
at the morada. In each
group or circle of Peni
tentes there is the Her
mano Mayor (chief broth
er), whose authority is
supreme. In old days he
condemned to death her
etics who opposed the
holy order, and his will
was executed in divers
secret ways. Every one
of the forty Lenten days
is observed by the fa
natics of the order. The
members live at the mo
rada, sleeping on the
earthen floor. There are
semi- weekly flagellations
the more fanatical de
manding extra scourgings
now and then. Once ev
ery three days each mem
ber of the order grapples
one of the huge, heavy
crosses, made of tree
trunks, almost as large as a telegraph pole in girth, and,
with it across his naked shoulders, starts dragging it
to the campo santo (Calvary) and back probably half
a mile of travel in all. The purpose is to make the
Penitente humble and to better appreciate the suffer
ings of the Master on the true Calvary.
But when the last six days of Lent or Holy Week
come, the Penitentes redouble their efforts to square
their religious accounts for the year by a fanatical
stoicism, probably unknown elsewhere except among
the East Indian fakirs. At dawn every day in Holy
Week the Penitentes give themselves scourgings that
would terrify one who had never seen them. Cat-o'
nine-tail whips made of braided tough yucca baccata
are used. Every blow raises a welt under each of the
lashes. Over one shoulder and then over the other
the Penitente beats the yucca branch with all the
strength of his muscular arms. Then he scourges his
lower back. Sometimes he even asks a brother to lay
the lashes on. Backs as raw as beefsteak are common
There are generally some veteran Penitentes, whose
wild fanaticism finds the scourgings unsatisfactory
They bind for a few hours at a tigie clumps of buck
thorn cactus to their hare shoulders so tight that the
thorns sink deeply into the raw flesh. It is wonderful
that human beings can endure such pain and blood
shedding for a week. Fortunately for themselves the
Penitentes are generally stalwart vaquems.
Every day, too, each of the Penitentes staggers
under the weight of (me of the cr,,sss fr,.m the
morada up the grade to camp., santo. There the
Penitente kneels, utters a Spanish praver. and staggers
back to the morada. B. M. Edwards, of Santa Fe
says he has seen Penitentes. with backs t mass Jf
quivering flesh, shoulder a cross and haul it twice in
one day from the morada to campo santo and back
The crowning event occurs on Good Friday when
the anniversary of Christ's death is celebrated with
a drama of the crucifixion. Honorary mcmberi t th
order of Penitentes. known as Hermanns (. j
(Brothers oi Light) are called in then t,, assist in
passion play. These Brothers of Light art aged anl
feeble veterans of the Penitentes. One of them
dressed with a tinsel crown on his swart hea l to
resent what he very crudely thinks is Pontius Pilar'"
another wears white cotton robes and long whisk
to represent Peter, and still another voune PmJZ?1
a Iroiwl 1,1 t 1 11 1 11 1 M in t-K r
mother of Christ. y' ine
The annual renewing of the seal of the order
jvmK renitem-
iry, the
'f1fr
curs at dawn on Good Friday. All Penitentes
phytes and veterans must be present at this cere
nion. The Penitentes stand within the morada in
single rows, with bodies nude above their overalls
The Hermano Mayor speaks in Spanish upon the
order and its zeal. Then he utters a written prayer that
has come to him from many predecessors. At a signal
each Penitente in the lines raises his right arm above
his head. The Hermano Mayor, with an historic piece
ot sharp dint in his hand, moves down the line and
rives each person the seal of the order, consisting
literally of three slashes of the flesh, each several
inches long, acioss the right chest.
At about 4 o'clock on Good Friday the crucifixion
ceremonies begin. The Penitentes issue from their
morada and silently form in procession, two abreast
The pitero and the Hermano Mayor take thejr places
at the head of the procession. The pitero blowx
weirdly shrill notes on his musical pipe, and the
brothers go shambling slowly to campo santo. They
are bare as to chests and backs, and are hatless and
shoeless. Every back in the procession is a mass of
reddened welts and lacerations.
The man who has been chosen the Christ staggers
pitifully at the rear under a crushing weight of a
heavy cross of oak timbers. But he is performing a
part that he has sought for these many months. He
is loosely wrapped about the loins with a cotton fabric,
as the Nazarene is always pictured on Calvary. About
his forehead is bound a wreath of buckthorn cactus,
pressed deep into the flesh. His broad back is a mass
of angry flesh. How one in his physical condition
can endure such pain and bear up such a load with his
bare shoulders, is only explainable on the grounds of
insane fanaticism that sometimes gives extraordinary
prowess.
Bound to the Cross
ARRIVED at the little hill chosen as the Calvary,
.the Penitentes circle about a shallow excavation.
The pitero ceases his strange air. The Hermano Mayor
gives a sign, and a half doen young men seize the per
spiring, panting wretch, who comes staggering up the
hillside with his mammoth cross across his shoulders.
The man is thrown on the cross, and several muscular
arms bind his limp form there with cords of cowhide.
If he has his senses and is very devout, it is proper lor
him to exclaim in the jargon of this region:
"Hind me not! Xail me, nail me to tin cross"
In former years the suppliant was taken literally
at his word.
When the man has been bound as tight as the
vaqueros know how, the crown of cactus thorns is
pressed closer upon his bleeding brow, the cross is
lifted and then allowed to drop with a thud into the
excavation. A shiver of pain goes through the crea
ture on the cross. He may groan slightly but he never
speaks. His family and relatives would reproach him
the rest of his days for such a breach.
The Penitentes stand and look up at tin man.
One cannot adequately tell the weirdncss of the
crucifixion scenes among" the southern valley! of the
Rocky Mountains. The picture of an appare ntly lite
less man hanging from a rude cross, sun muled by
half-naked, dark-visaged, rough and bewhiskered men,
in the shadows of a departing day. would netef fa(le.
from anyone's memory. Hut the reverential silence ot
the assemblage, the brown backs reddened, the barren
solitude of the locality, and the lonely grandeur ot tit
everlasting mountains all about, add qualities to the
scene that are known nowhere else in all the W0f
Hardened as the spectators in these lonely valleys are
to these annual crucifixions, an intense hush come
over them and evervone gazes in awe at the centra
figure raised aloft on the cross. The person from a
civil ied community who looks upon a scene like tm.
for the first time, feels the blood pounding in Ins earv
A crucifixion may last half an hour. The cownsw
cords bound about the victim by the Mexican c,m,) c
cut deep into the flesh. The man looks as it he 'e
dying. His flesh becomes dark, then purple and Disc
His head droops forward and generally he SW,H."S', t0
former days when the victims were actually .'P1
the cross there were frequent deaths of Penitenw
the cross. The last authentic case of crucifixion j
nailing took place in San Mateo in 1H87. j.
At a signal from the Hermano Mayor, the cro ,$
lifted from the excavation and is lowered. A sn
thrown over the limn and unconscious man o
The cords are loosed and a half-dozen nrou .
eross. ine cords are loosed and a nan Tiierc it
pick up the body and carry it to the morada 1 or
is nursed back to life. Sometimes it requires a J
two. But whatever the agony, and no niatt
-1 . V .i l. l. hr ntlll 111 e"
near ine man nas been to deatn. ne the dance
Otl hl fatnilvr (.xr mortr 1,.tlr VMt. alld at I U
n Easter Monday he is the biggest man m tne