Relics, Jesuit Masculinity, and the Performance of Martyrdom in Triumpho de los Sanctos

Abstract:In this article I analyze the sixteenth-century New Spanish Jesuit play Triumpho de los Sanctos, written and performed at the Colegio Máximo de San Pedro y San Pablo in Mexico City as the centerpiece of an eight-day festival to welcome the arrival of a shipment of holy relics from Rome. The play focuses on four early Christian martyrs—saints Pedro, Doroteo, Gorgonio, and Juan—, whose bones were among those sent by Pope Gregory XIII to the New World. The choice the anonymous Jesuit authors made to foreground these four lives among all the saints, virgins, and other holy personages whose relics made it to New Spain is not coincidental. The recently arrived Society of Jesus believed the promotion of martyrdom would assist them in their desire to save the native souls of New Spain. The depiction of the four ancient martyrs as embodying the masculine ideals of holy courage and exemplary virtue allowed the Society to promote a blueprint for the conduct of those whom they would send out to be missionaries in this hostile new landscape. In relating the circumstances of the four saints' death in a dramatic work, moreover, the Jesuits allowed the audience to connect the recently arrived holy fragments of bone to the flesh and blood men whose suffering they believed would bring glory to God.