Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:02 Virtually all of us have heard the story over and over and over again. If your skills are anything like the post goes, I went to virtually all of us have heard the story of the pilgrims who, that little group who in 1620, uh, jumped off the Mayflower and, and brought Calvinism and also the concept of marriage as a strictly civil contract to our shores. We've all heard that, but at exactly the same time pilgrims arrived, they were absolutely amazing, miraculous events happening to Catholics elsewhere and what's now the United States. And virtually none of us have probably heard those stories. So this morning we'll change that. Now today I've used way too many sorts to name in a sermon. I've also spliced, cut, pasted and edited some of the quotes for clarity. Okay. And the 1620s, a Franciscan friar for Alonso to Benevidez was to superior the Franciscan missions and what's now New Mexico and Texas.
Speaker 0 01:03 And each summer, starting in 1620 does in Hermano, Indians would show up and ask by the Benevidez to send missionaries to their people who live far to the east and an area which is now part of East Texas in western Louisiana. He can never meet their requests because he just didn't have enough priests. On June 3rd, 1629 I supply caravan from Mexico City arrived. Now they had a New Mexico. That's a mission 14 miles south of Albuquerque. It's still there. Of course, the caravan had a military escort, 30 priests, 36 ox carts of supplies and provisions and also letter of inquiry written in May of 1628 a year before written by the Archbishop of Mexico City. The archbishop wanted Father Benevidez to determine if any Indians had showed him previous knowledge of our holy Catholic faith. And if so, Father Benevidez was to determine how these tribes had acquired this knowledge and then informed the Archbishop of the results quote for the greater spiritual champion, advancement the glory in service of our Lord.
Speaker 0 02:15 Close quote. Now, the obvious question is why on earth with archbishop and Mexico City burden is priests working in the most remote missions with a task of finding out if any tribes of Indians had knowledge of the Catholic faith before the arrival of missionaries and the answer is archbishop had received a remarkable letter from Spain as written by the confessor of a cloistered Franciscan nun since 1620 while she was in prayer, this young nun had found herself the territory's of the new world. She named a few of the tribes she'd visited, including the <inaudible>. She could describe specific about the geography and individual Indians, the superior general the Franciscans had met. This nun had been favorably impressed with her and her stories. So with his approval, her confessor wrote to the Archbishop of Mexico City and afternoon reading the letter, Dr. Bishop himself was sufficiently impressed with his stories about this young sister that he ordered this investigation on July 22nd, 1629 only a few weeks after Father Benevidez received the archbishop's letter of band of 50 Hoomana Indians, including one I chief chief to wear toe Capitan.
Speaker 0 03:37 Two Airto showed up at I later and presented themselves again, insisting that the priest come to their people. The Franciscans asked, why have you come? The Amanda's responded, we have been instructed by a beautiful girl and we wish to be baptized. The priests invited him out of leaders inside Capitan to wear to a pointing to a portrait on the wall. If an elderly conception is none and said a woman in similar clothing wanders among us preaching the precessed if it were the same. None. No. Our Lady in blue is much, much younger and far more beautiful. She comes to us flying through the sky. Obviously the situation called for investigation, so within a few days, two priests, three soldiers in the 50 Hermano Indians were on the trail back to the amount of comp after covering over 500 miles in 10 days of hard travel, they came to the upper red river on the side of what is now which tough falls Texas, and they walk to the 12 amount of scouts who are very excited to see them and promptly knelt down, kissed the hymns of the fires habits, and then venerated the crosses that the friars were wearing around their necks.
Speaker 0 04:49 The scouts said that they'd been sent to ask the priest to hurry. The medicine. Men were telling everybody that the whole tribe was going to have to move camp immediately to new hunting grounds. Since the priests were never going to come, the 50 men were never going to return and the lady in blue could not be trusted, but the lady in blue had then appeared and told everybody to wait a few days and to send scouts ahead to this exact spot in order to greet the priest. After meeting the priest, his scouts ran back to tell everybody that the priests were indeed on their way and that everything that the lady in blue had told him was true. Before the priest arrived, she appeared again to help the tribe decorate a large wooden cross, the flowers, and then she told them how to go out to meet the priest carrying the cross in front of the whole tribe, which was exactly how the priests met the entire tribe and procession behind a cross decorated with flowers.
Speaker 0 05:46 The chiefs told the Franciscans are people wished he baptized. So the priest asked, achieves everyone who actually wanted to be baptized to raise their hands so that they would know who they had to attend to. Everyone raised their hands and the mothers even held up the hands. Other little infants. So the priest started by catechize and the people and then baptized them the whole time this is going on, which took some time. Representatives of other tribes kept showing up in camp and insisting that their people be baptized as well. When the priest asked what had prompted them to show up at the camp of the Amanas, they told them that the lady in blue had been visiting them and teaching them before it was all said and done. The two Franciscans baptize some 10,000 Indians. Now just take a moment to stop and think about that.
Speaker 0 06:36 10,000 baptisms. That's more than three Pentecost. 10,000 they told the man as they had to return to their mission and give a full report of everything they had seen where they promise to return, establish a permanent mission before the priest left the has brought out their sick and crippled and asked the priest to heal them. So the true flyers walked along and is one priest read passages from the gospel of St Luke about our lord healing the sick. They made the sign of the cross over each individual and the sick were healed immediately. It's one of these fryers wrote quote, more than 200 were cured in this manner. Close quote, after the priest returned in New Mexico and describe what they had seen to father Benevidez. He set out from Mexico City to report the archbishop. Then he was sent on to Spain and apparent medical remark.
Speaker 0 07:25 Some years later when the great Jesuit explorer, Father Kino and his companions hit northern Sonora and what's no western and southern Arizona. He's visiting the PMO, Human Indians and other Indians in that area. The Indians kept telling him about visits that they had earlier on from a beautiful white woman carrying across, dressed in blue with a black covering on her head who spoke to them and then flew off through the air. All right, back to father Benevidez, he wrote 111 page initial report for church officials and the King of Spain in which he described the missions and the some 60,000 Catholic Indians living in what's now New Mexico and Texas, and also told the story of the Lady of blue in the miraculous conversion of Humana tribe. While Father Benevidez was visiting with his superior general of his order, the superior general told him who the lady in blue actually was.
Speaker 0 08:17 And so it happened that in late April of 1631 father Benevidez traveled to northeastern Spain. To the very Franciscan Convent of the Poor Clares immaculate conception in which the lady in blue actually lived and he had opportunity to interview her face to face and the presence of her confessor. She had to be put under obedience to tell everything she knew about her visits to the new world. Otherwise, in humility, she wasn't going to reveal anything. Father Bene vitis wrote down what he had learned in the interview and sent copies to pope urban and eighth to King Philippe Fourth of Spain and of course to the Franciscans back in the new world. Find the Benevidez quote. First of all, I must state that Maria of Jesus has a beautiful face, very white, although Rosie with large black eyes, her habit is the same as ours made of course, gray sat cloth over this gray habit comes one of course, white sackcloth with a scap and made the same material and the quarter of our father, Saint Francis over the scaffold, there's a rosary.
Speaker 0 09:17 The cloak is of heavy blue sack cloth and she wears a black veil. She told me so many tales in the new world that I did not even remember them myself and she brought them back to my mind. This blessing mother told me that she had been present with me at the baptism of Pieros. That's a tribe in New Mexico and she recognized me as the one she'd seen there, black way. She had helped Father Kiros with some baptisms, giving a minute description of his person and face once when the father was in his church, baptizing many Indians came in and all crowd around the door and that she with their own hands pushed them on getting them to their own places so they would not hinder him. They looked to see what's pushing them and they laughed when they were unable to see who did it.
Speaker 0 09:56 She also told me about all that we know that has happened to the two priests and their journeys to the mannose and she asked that. She asked who managed to go and call the fathers as they did. She knows capita and to where to a very well giving a detailed description of him and of the others. She gave me all their descriptions adding that she assisted them. She convinced me absolutely by describing to me all the things New Mexico is. I have seen them myself as well as by other details which I shall keep within my soul. I call God to witness that my esteem, her holiness has been increased more by the noble qualities which I discerned in here and by all the miracles which she is rot in America, closed quotes in her own letters. Sister Maria said quote, the events which I've reported to Father Venom.
Speaker 0 10:41 He days during the interview happened to me from the year 1620 to the present year, 1631 and the kingdoms of quiver era or that's grand quiver. That's a Pueblo in eastern New Mexico in the kingdoms of Covera and Humana's, which were the last ones where I was transported close quote. All in all the lady in blue by located over 500 times from her cloistered convent to the new world, sometimes making as many as four trips per day, visiting tribes in rain, stretching from each Texas across New Mexico all the way to western Arizona, all in order to prepare these pagan peoples for the preaching of the true faith, the faith without which it is impossible to please God. Lady and blue died in 1665 and your body's still in corrupt. It's been in the nineties since they last checked at 89 91 something like that, and she's just as fresh as is.
Speaker 0 11:39 She laid down to sleep a few hours before. There's much more that could be said about her. For example, in 1995 <inaudible> a spaniel named her is one of the nine most influential women in Spanish history. Let's just end by noting that although her missionary work in American southwest is truly amazing in our day and age, most people know her because of another work she did. The mystical city of God. See Lady in blue is a venerable Mary of a greater. So from now on, whenever you hear something about pilgrims bringing Calvinism to our shores, think about this poor Clare of the Mac conception by locating from Spain to bring salvation to our shores.
