Los Hermanos Penitentes

It’s Holy Week and I am in the midst of los penitentes—an old fraternity that still thrives in northern New Mexico. The brotherhood will hold many ceremonies and processions this week.

When this part of the world was controlled by Spain, there was no separation of church and state. The Spanish missions were run by the Franciscan order and were the centers of government. But when New Mexico was acquired by the United States and foreigner Americans began to anglicize things in the 19th century, the Hispanic people grew increasingly bitter about all the changes taking place, including the replacement of ancient Franciscan traditions with secular ones. Out of that bitterness grew a rich folk religion with los hermanos penitentes at its core, a brotherhood which scorned the new church authority and was often condemned by the Catholic Church.

The penitentes meet and hold their rituals in places called moradas. Moradas are meeting houses in secluded places. Down the road from here, beside an old hillside cemetery, are the crumbling remains of the Lumberton morada.

Closely connected to los hermanos are santeros, the artists who create religious paintings and carvings for them in the old New Mexico style. The pictures here are carvings at our church by a santero from Santa Fe.