{"id":2146,"date":"2021-11-05T16:54:48","date_gmt":"2021-11-05T23:54:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/arthursattic\/?p=2146"},"modified":"2026-04-22T10:24:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T17:24:05","slug":"cristo-de-maiz-in-the-mission-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/arthursattic\/2021\/11\/05\/cristo-de-maiz-in-the-mission-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Cristo de Ma\u00edz in the Mission Church"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Have you ever spent time in the Mission Church and wondered about the origin of some of the religious art and decorations in there? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One particular object has inspired many a prayer and a bit of curiosity: the Christ Crucified statue. Also known as the Catal\u00e1 Crucifix, this statue came to Santa Clara from Mexico in 1803 and its location in the Mission was the site of long hours of devotion from Father Catal\u00e1, The Holy Man of Santa Clara<\/a>. It was also paraded down the Alameda for Catholic celebrations and rituals during the Mission era, and was one of the few artifacts to survive the 1926 Mission fire. It hangs today behind an altar looking timeless and untouched in an alcove to the right of the nave as seen in the header image of this post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Combined with the other decorations in the Mission Church\u2014the altar furniture in the chancel, other statues that fill out the altar, and paintings\u2014the Catal\u00e1 Crucifix is one item in a collective of what are called retablos. We know this from the wonderful book Situating Mission Santa Clara de As\u00eds, 1776-1851<\/a><\/em> by Russell Skowronek, a chronological dealing of Santa Clara and its milestones. Under the year 1802 it says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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… it was a year of highs and lows. On the positive side, after nearly twenty years in the Murg\u00eda complex, a payment of 1,400 pesos was made for the first retablo<\/em> or alter piece from the workshop of Don Marcos Lopez (Mission Santa Clara Account Book, p. 52). It was consecrated on the Feast of St. Clare, August 12 (Bancroft 1885, vol. 19: 136). This decoration existed until 1926 when it was lost in the fire that destroyed the church” (182).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Under the year 1803, it says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At Santa Clara, the decoration of the church that had begun in earnest the previous year continued with another 1,336 pesos paid for ‘two retablos in 32 boxes and three parts’ (Skowronek and Fanta 2004: 57) (Figure 27). Another entry exists for 160 pesos for three carved figures of St. Clare, St. Michael the archangel, and St. Joseph (55). <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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Close up of three statues behind the altar of the Mission Church pre-1926. Full size photo courtesy of SCU Digital Collections<\/a>. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Image of the interior of the Mission Church pre-1926 courtesy of SCU Digital Collections<\/a>. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Skowronek goes onto say under 1803:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The procurador<\/em> who checked the account books and made certain the missions were supplied was none other than Father Tom\u00e1s de la Pe\u00f1a, one of Santa Clara’s founders. He would serve as procurador until 1806 (Bancroft 1885, vol. 19:165). The only part of these decorations to survive the 1926 fire is the so-called ‘Catal\u00e1 crucifix’ that is still part of the furnishings of the church (Figure 28)” (p. 184)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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Close up of Catal\u00e1 Crucifix pre-1926 courtesy of SCU Digital Collections<\/a>.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Judging from the devotion this statue has engendered from the early 19th century Mission days to people of faith in the 21st century, it is a powerful example of Colonial Mexican art being used in California in service to Catholic worship for centuries\u2014first by the Franciscans running a Mission and now by Jesuits running a college. As such, many praying people have closely examined the physical attributes of the statue and have had curiosity about this type of devotional art, the retablos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The word retablo comes from the Latin retro tabulum<\/em>, meaning “behind the (altar) table,” and in Spanish, retablo usually refers to painted or sculpted retables or alterpieces that first became popular in Europe in the fourteenth century (Chorpenning i). In Mexico and New Mexico, retablo has come to mean a specific type of devotional art not just used behind the altar in a church but for personal devotion. These are increasingly identified by scholars as images painted in oil on a tin-plated sheet of iron that was produced from the early nineteenth century through the early twentieth century (Chorpenning v). Yet, this is not what we see when we look at the Catala Crucifix. In fact we don’t see painted tin anywhere in the Mission Church the way it is understood to have existed from 19th century Mexico into the present day country and in New Mexico. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Image of tin-painted retablos courtesy of New M<\/a>exico State University<\/a>.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Reigning expert on Mexican retablos Gloria Fraser Giffords says, “The need for religious imagery in the earliest years [of Colonial Mexico] first was met by paintings, prints, and sculpture imported from Spain and then gradually replaced by works produced in Mexico” (35). As works began to be created in Mexico, the influence of the indigenous culture seeped into the art: architectural details of churches reveal that the “technique and even… motifs… of the ornament are Indian” despite the form itself being European, like in the case of the Renaissance cloister at Acolman (Toussaint 50). The other way in which indigenous influence in Catholic art was felt was with a specific method using the pith of the corn stalk, called ca\u00f1a de ma\u00edz<\/em>, or maize stem sculptures in English, in the production of puppets and statues (Toussaint 52). This artistic method is similar to papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9, resulting in a hallow structure that is then lacquered, often with linseed oil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This describes our Catal\u00e1 Crucifix! <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, the lightness of statues made in the ca\u00f1a de ma\u00edz<\/em> technique lends itself to the forms being used in ritualistic parades as portable puppets, specifically in the palm procession before Easter Sunday, which is a tradition dating back to the Carolingian era in medieval European history and that gained popularity as evangelizing of the new world became a central focus for the Spanish in New Spain (Lara 212-3). This tradition, called the Palmesel, “appealed to the neophytes in New Spain when they dealt with the dramatized episodes of the life of Jesus Christ” to dissociate the divine qualities of Jesus from the human actor (doubtlessly beleaguered by human shortcomings) that would be portraying him (Lara 213). In fact, these puppets were also used in Lenten processions, but as life-sized crucifixes made from the corn pith. The Christ crucified statues are “vivid in color and extraordinarily lightweight, ideal for the long and exhausting Lenten processions” (Lara 215). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the practicality of the material is noteworthy, the corn is deeply symbolic and connects to Indigenous notions of the sanctity of corn. According to Lara, “the Nahuatl word for maize dough is in fact ‘our sweet sustenance’ (toneuhcayotl<\/em>)” and “corn was the staple food and had itself been a god in the Aztec pantheon” (215). Combining holy material\u2014holy sustenance<\/em>\u2014with Christian imagery is a concrete way in which cultural worlds collided in the so-called new world and aided in the conversation of the local people to Christianity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Altar<\/a>
Altarpiece and image of the Christ of Mercy in the Villa de Garachico (Tenerife). 
The image is from the 16th century, and was made by the Tarascan Indians of Michoac\u00e1n in Mexico. 
It is venerated in the Parish Church of Santa Ana.
De CanaryIslands – Trabajo propio, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Sant\u00edsimo Christ of Telde. 
Century XVI. 
Mat\u00edas de la Cerda. 
Technique of the Tarascan Indians of Mexico. 
Basilica of San Juan Bautista (Telde). De Jos\u00e91989 – Trabajo propio, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Lord of the Precious Blood of Christ in 
Quiroga<\/a> courtesy of michoacan.travel<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Jaime Lara, in Christian Texts for Aztecs: Art and Liturgy in Colonial Mexico<\/em>, says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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To make one of these statues, the corn husk was first opened and its ‘heart’ (pith) removed, much like the pre-Christian sacrifices or the preparations of food. Then an armature was constructed of dried maize leaves fastened together with fibers of the agave cactus; for rigidity in the finger and toes turkey feathers were used. In some cases the fabricators of the armature made use of old sheves of paper, and in several sculptures the armature is a Nahuatl-language codex of prayers and catechism texts, used no doubt because of its being sacred writing, and hence ‘sacred stuffing’ (215).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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