Fray Domingo de Mendoza, entrepreneur of religious festivals in Counter-reformation Madrid

Abstract

This article deals with the promotion of religious festivals in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Madrid. It centers on the activity of a Dominican from the friary of Our Lady of Atocha, Domingo de Mendoza (1549-1624). Best known for promoting several Spanish candidates for sainthood, he also organized ceremonies important in Madrid’s public life. Based on unpublished documents from penitential confraternities and processional protocols made for the Madrid celebration of two Dominican saints (Hyacinth of Poland and Raymond of Peñafort), this work explores Mendoza’s role as an impresario of festive and religious culture in the new capital city of the Spanish monarchy. Mendoza was a model for the triumphant Counter-Reformation in an urban context in which there were also less successful protagonists.