Desaparecido Convento de Capuchinas
El SANTO CRISTO DE LAS ALHAJAS // CHRIST OF THE PRECIOUS GEMS
written by Dr. Francisco de Paula León
translated by Henry H. Duckman, M.D.

Two elders of Patzcuaro, Don Mateo and Don Antonio de la Cerda, erected a chapel to the Virgin of Cosamaloapan in the south of Valladolid ¹ beyond the Rio Chico in gratitude for the great blessings they received from her generous hand. The site could not have been more picturesque. To the east were the towns of La Concepción and San Pedro, set among luxuriant trees; to the south,  a brook, meandering in a serpentine fashion among the fields and the shade of verdant willows; to the west, low green hills and beautiful sunsets. To the north was the burgeoning Valladolid , with its manor houses. What better place for a house of prayer, a monastery!

Strolling through this place one day with his only daughter Doña Clara, Don Ramiro Ortiz de la Cerda, descendant of those Patzcuareño elders who founded the chapel dedicated to the Virgin of Cosamaloapan, decided to spend a small part of his fortune on erecting a church of God  and convent for his daughter, who had shown signs of a calling to religious life and who never passed up an opportunity either alone or accompanied by her father to go to pray to the Virgin for the help she needed to lead her vocation.

Clara was a mestizo. Flowing in her veins was the blood of the calzonzin, the indigenous nobility, and of the Spanish nobility, conferring upon her the gentleness of the one and the strength of character of the other. Her beauty was in full bloom alkthough she tried to hide it as much as possible from the gazes of the thousand suitors who gathered around her house and for whom she refused to open her shutters. In as much as she spent extended periods at the court of the Viceroy, lodged with her aunts in the Convent of Corpus Christi of Mexico, she learned at an early age to follow scrupulously the rules of poverty, chastity and obedience which were observed so strictly and so chastely by the nuns. Clara passionately desired to become a sister of Corpus Christi , in that cloistered garden where the most sublime virtues flourished. But Don Ramiro, in order not  to be separated from his daughter, decided instead to use his wealth to build a convent for the Capuchines in Valladolid which would be similar in every  respect to the convent of Corpus Christi . He succeeded in realizing this objective in the beginning of the eighteenth century. By  royal decree dated the fourteenth of March 1734 and inscribed in the official registry, Phillip V granted permission for the creation of the new monastery in the noble and loyal city of Valladolid, in what is today Morelia.

The church and convent were built on the same site as the chapel of Our Lady of Cosamaloapan and the founding sisters were transferred there from the convent of the monastery of Santa Catalina where they had previously resided. Led by Doctor Don Marcos Muñoz de Sanabria, Archdeacon of the holy cathedral, they walked in a grand procession accompanied by the clergy, nobles and townspeople. Leading the procession were dances representing the battle between the Moors and Christians, the conquerers and the conquered in their rich and colorful costumes. Following them were members of the different religious orders invited for this solemn occasion. Next came the religious founders, among them the novice Clara Ortiz de la Cerda, whose angelic face, at the point of achieving her most ardent desire, shone with bliss. The holy image of Christ crucified on a cross covered with mirrors, which was in the style of that time, followed her and was to be placed in one of the side aisles of the churrigueresque church, and which from then on was given the title "The Lord of Santa Clara", at a later time changed to "Christ of the Precious Gems".

Finally the Archdeacon and his retinue approached. The air resonated with the exuberant pealing of church bells and explosions from countless fireworks that  split the air in streaming sparkling light. Balconies, doors and windows were decorated with fresh, fragrant flowers, with tapestries and multihued Chinese silk mantles, eliciting smiles from the crowd gathered to observe this dignified parade.

Many years later, when the church was completed and crowned by its beautiful and  lofty tower, and its magnificently carved and gilded retablos in the churrigueresque style, the Christ of the Precious Gems was placed upon the altar  erected in the transept of this holy place of prayer. What was special about this crucifix, aside from its beauty, was that its pedestal was a precious little jewel sheathed in tortoise shell, mother of pearl, and bone with touches of silver. Within its roomy  jeweled base, were a large number of secret drawers where the nuns,  stripped of their property, in their piety, deposited jewels of varying value. Strings of pearls, rings of diamonds, emeralds and rubies,  gold necklaces, earrings both pendant and plain, of gold and precious stones, pins and brooches of incomparable artistic beauty in the old style, were concealed there. Each secret drawer carried the name of the nun who had forever given up all her wordly trappings. To this famous place, and its powerful miraculous figure, all came with their afflictions and prayed to the Christ of the Precious Gems. What's more, the curly black hair that adorned Christ's head was the very same curly black hair that the Abbess of the convent had reverently cut from the head of Clara Ortiz de la Cerda on the day she took possession of her nun's habit!

These two circumstances, that of Clara's hair and of the nuns’ jewels gave rise to two unusual legends.

The first legend is that of the Festival of the Christ of the Precious Gems which was celebrated beginning with the first Friday of Lent. During that period, the church was truly transformed into a red hot lump of gold. Solemn hymns from the choir loft resounded echo upon echo into the very highest reaches of the church's dome. Clouds of fragrant incense enveloped the luminous monstrance that gleamed like a star of the first magnitude. The voices of the faithful, subdued in their devotions, murmured like the bees who toiled over their deliciously fragrant honeycombs. Gilt altar vestments embroidered on Toledan cloth sparkled as they reflected the flames of hundreds of candles burning on the altars and in the copper chandeliers suspended from the dome and the vaulted ceiling. The holy figure of the Christ of the Precious Gems, prominently displayed, dominated the scene beneath  a canopy of strawberry Genoese velvet, enchanting the faithful and capturing their hearts.

On one particular day, religious services having been completed, the fragrance of  extinguished candles permeated the sanctuary. No light shone except for that lamp whose ineffectual flame, like a will-o-the-wisp, was lost in the gloom.

The sexton jangled his keys to hasten the departure of the last worshipper not yet finished with his prayers. Nevertheless, an elegant young man silently managed to hide himself inside a large confessional located beneath the choir loft. The church doors were locked leaving everything submerged in solitude and silence. Finally, the young man crept cautiously from his hiding place. He was none other than Don Juan Bautista Gomez, son of an aristocratic gentleman farmer who had lived in Valladolid for many years and who, consumed by Clara’s beauty and having lost all hope of making her his wife, only wanted to possess a cherished memento of his beloved, to be accomplished by cutting off the hair from the head of the Christ of the Precious Gems. Trembling, he approached the chancel,  reaching out his right hand to seize the hair when suddenly the figure of Christ, releasing its hand from the nail that pegged it to the cross, grabbed the bold young man by his hair! Without further ado the young man pitched over onto his back, unconscious until the next day, whereupon he repentantly divulged these events.

The  second legend refers to the jewels. The first expulsion of the nuns from the Church of the Capuchines left the church utterly deserted, closed for several days. Inside, liturgical music had ceased, lamps had been extinguished, and at night, instead of the clear notes of the bells calling matins, only the throaty lament of an owl could be heard. The essence, the essential oil of the church, had evaporated. A profound silence reigned in the cloister.

Under such circumstances, on a gloomy, stormy night, while the wind howled, while the clouds flashed with reflected lightning, and continuous thunder deafened the ear, a man, carefully concealing himself among the shadows, approached the side of the church where he threw a hook attached to a rope toward one of the window sills. The hook caught. The man nimbly climbed the rope, broke the window panes and disappeared into the darkness of the church.

By the dim light of a candle, lit from the spark of a flint, he approached the glass case in which the Christ of the Precious Gems stood. He broke the glass and flung himself at the jewels like a bird of prey. But… surprise! The jewels were not there! Thus, deceived and infuriated, in a senseless rage he grabbed the precious statue to destroy it, and at that very moment was struck by a fit of apoplexy paralyzing half his body! And for many years afterwards, he dragged his crippled leg through the streets of Morelia recounting his story and repenting his contemptible act.

Well now, it has been many years since anyone has spoken of these events and, little by little, time passes and everything disappears, buried in the abyss of nothingness. Forgetfulness, a flower that flourishes in the meadows of life, eventually covers all things forever. And so the fantastic events described in this tale will only serve to amuse those who have a taste for the unusual and the whimsical.

Apart from this, as they told it to me, thus do I tell it to you.