Celebrate a New Saints Day. Celebrations in Mexico City for de beatifications and canonizations of Saints of the Regular Orders (16th-18th Centuries).

Abstract

Most of the saints beatified and canonized by the Catholic Church after the Council of Trent were friars and nuns; the regular orders to which they belonged celebrated these pontifical acts with feasts, especially lavish ones in the territories of the Spanish empire, both in Europe and in America. As the capital of a new Christianity, Mexico City commemorated with special interest some of these beatifications and canonizations, especially those of the saints of the religious prov- inces that arrived in its territory later, such as the Jesuits, the Carmelites, the Hospitallers and the Mercedarians. Because they were very costly acts and required the presence of all the authorities and urban corporations, such demonstrations were exceptional; Until the end of the 17th century, the first evangelizing orders preferred to invest their resources in the celebrations of their ancient saints rather than in their recently canonized ones, but from then on and in the 18th century they were forced to imitate the others and hold ostentatious celebrations in honor of their new saints.