Fresh Batch #65: Monasteries of Morelos

Colonial Mexico

Formerly Cuahnahuac (Wooded Valley), a garden city, the monastery was built in 1529 and completed by 1534. According to Wiki, it was the fifth construction in New Spain by the order and supervised by Toribio de Benavente Motolinia.

Also in this monastery is a depiction of the crucifixion of Felipe de Jesús, who, according to Wiki, “sailed on the San Felipe on 12 July 1596, but a storm drove the vessel upon the coast of Japan. The governor of the province confiscated the ship and imprisoned its crew and passengers, among whom were another Franciscan friar, Juan de Zamorra, as well as three other friars, two Augustinians and a Dominican. The discovery of soldiers, cannon and ammunition on the ship led to the suspicion that it was intended for the conquest of Japan, and that the missionaries were merely to prepare the way for the soldiers. This was also said, falsely and unwarrantably, by one of the crew, and it enraged the Japanese Taikō, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, generally called Taicosama by Europeans. In consequence, he commanded on December 8, 1596, the arrest of the Franciscans in the friary at Miako, now Kyoto, whither Philip had gone.^”

He became the first Mexican-born martyr.

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