11/3: The Rome of Peru, Arequipa: The Monasterio de Santa Catalina

Taking up an entire block of Arequipa was one of its most important sights, the Monasterio de Santa Catalina, built in 1579 and enlarged in the 17th century. Resembling a small town, the over 20,000-square-meter monastery - I will refer to it as a convent from here on - comprised one hundred rooms lined along six streets, with three cloisters, a gallery and a church.

We could have hired a guide but chose to use our notes from a travel guide and the detailed pamphlet provided instead. It was sponsored, in part, by Canada's Scotiabank that had so many branches through much of South America!

The St. Catherine of Siena Convent, a Dominican order, was founded in 1579 by Dona Maria de Guzman, a rich widow who became a nun, less than 40 years after the Spanish arrived in the city. After sustaining damage in the 1958 and 1960 earthquakes, the Convent was restored and opened to the public on August 15th, 1970, the 430th anniversary of the city's founding in 1540. Tourism was thought to be the best option to raise funds for electricity and running water.

Near the entrance was the Parlor where the nuns communicated with the outside world from behind double wooden bars. The revolving windows were used to exchange a variety of products.

Nuns received important visitors with prior authorization from the Archbishop in the Work Room. One of the images from the 17th century represented the Last Supper.

The tradition of the time indicated that the second son or daughter of a family would enter a life of service in the Church. Entrance requirements to the Monasterio de Santa Catalina were among the strictest in Peru. The convent accepted only females from upper class Spanish families. Each family paid a dowry at their daughter's admission at the age of twelve, or from a much younger age, to the convent. The dowry expected of a girl was 2,400 silver coins, equivalent to about $150,000 today! The girls were also required to bring 25 listed items, including a statue, a painting, a lamp and clothes. 

The wealthy novices brought along home comforts including servants, living as they had previously, even hosting parties. Although it was possible for poorer nuns to enter the convent without paying a dowry, it was apparent after seeing the rooms, called cells, that most of the nuns were very wealthy.

In the Novice Cloister, the aspiring nuns made contact with religious life before professing their vows. I read that families paid for their daughters to enter the Convent in the belief they could dedicate their lives in communion with God and hence secure them all a nice place in heaven. 

The paintings in the cloister's arcades represented the 'Spiritual Exercises for the Perfection of the Soul of Saint Ignacio de Loyola.' 

This chapel, decorated with gold leaf, was built after the physical separation of the novices and the nuns.

The three crosses in the Orange Tree Cloister are used by the nuns in the convent to re-enact the Passion of Christ on Good Friday every year. Unfortunately, the public is unable to view this ancient tradition because the convent is closed that day, recalling the time when the order was completely cloistered from the world.

I was struck by the convent's vividly painted buildings especially in contrast to the mostly white buildings in Arequipa that had been constructed from sillar, a white volcanic stone.

I was surprised to learn that the individual rooms where the nuns lived in the convent were called 'cells' in the literature we were given. The nuns owned their own cells. This two-room one sold for fifty pesos in 1632 to another nun; I have no idea what the current value of that amount would be in today's dollars.

This cell, like all the others, included the same features: an altar, a closet and an arch. Some had religious paintings.

Even though it was three months ago since we visited the convent, I recall that each of the cells also had its own entrance way from one of the cloisters, generally at least a small patio and often a kitchen area.

  

The nuns of Santa Catalina/St. Catherine of Siena were very famous for the preparation of pastries, buns, cakes, cookies, etc.

  

The restoration of the 49 paintings in the Orange Tree Cloister was funded by the US Embassy. 

Sala (Room) Zubaran:

I found the following description of the nuns' core beliefs to be moving: "During each of these moments (of manual work and study), we pray for the world and with the world. Within the Church, we are not visible but present. After more than 400 years, our presence is still here because what originates is the LOVE. That is the secret to be happy here: To be in love, not with an ideal or a project, but with Jesus."

When restoration began on the convent before it was opened to the public in 1970, workers uncovered a cache of religious paintings dating back to the mid-1500s. Experts restored the 400 artworks, many of which were hailed as the most important examples of religious art in South America.

The series of 34 magnificent paintings was displayed in the Convent's Religious Art Gallery which consisted of two large rooms in the shape of a cross with exposed block walls made of sillar, the volcanic white stone. 

The monstrance, a liturgical object used to display the Holy Sacrament for the worship of the faithful, was crafted from gold-coated silver, gold and precious stones. It was presented to the Prioress in May of 1852.

Between 1871 and 1969, the gallery space was used as a community dormitory or shelter for homeless widows and single mothers. Because of the room's excellent acoustics, the hall is occasionally used for classical music concerts.

In a corner of the Gallery was an elaborate candelabra.

The Coronation of the Virgin was painted in the 18th century in the Cusco School style with its typical gilt.

Though the Calle Cordova had buildings from the 18th century, the convent's present-day nuns live and carry out their vows of seclusion in a building on the left from just 1969. About 30 nuns still live in the convent that once housed 450 people, a third of them nuns and the rest of them servants. The pots of bright red geraniums looked so pretty against the street's whitewashed walls inspired by the architecture of Spain's Andalusia region.

The kitchen off the Eucharist Room:

Calle Toledo was the convent's longest and narrowest street and its red-adobe buildings were the oldest in the convent. Walking through the convent felt like we were walking through a living history museum, as indeed we were in a sense with nuns living out of bounds for the tourists.

This cell featured a vault which had been used as a free school for the poor girls of the city during the first years of the Republic.
Christian doctrine, music, calculus and house chores were taught.

Another example of one of the convent's old kitchens:

The estrado was an elevated section of the floor furnished with carpets or mats on which women would normally place cushions for those rare times they could socialize, play musical instruments or embroider. The estrado reflected Islamic influence associated with fifteenth century Spain particularly for women.

It didn't appear from the luxurious furnishings that the nuns in this area of the convent had taken a vow of poverty. The convent underwent reform  in the 1870s when Sr. Josef Cadena replaced the hedonistic lifestyle with religious austerity.

The presence of platforms in the nun's cells at St. Catherine Convent indicated that in the colonial era the spaces were given a social function and used for meeting people similar to life in the outside world.

The interesting item in the cell that belonged to Madre Cipriana Centeno was an Iron Cross which had an ornamental motif with two snakes and a triangle at the top featuring a face with closed eyes.

At the end of the long Calle Toledo boulevard, was the convent's Laundry built at a time when Arequipa's water source was a series of small canals. The twenty huge earthenware pots, earlier used to hold grain or store wine, doubled up as wash basins. The water for washing was channeled through a central canal, with offshoots leading into the individual pots.

The nuns who lived in the convent between 1827 and 1969 were buried in the Cemetery behind the high red wall. Since then, when a nun dies, the body is buried in a crypt also situated in the cemetery.

Madre Manuela Ballon's cell or small apartment seemed particularly inviting if one were seeking peace or refuge from the outside world.

This garden, just steps away from the cemetery and laundry areas, could be enjoyed by all the convent's residents.

With its terracotta walls, flying buttresses and bright flowers, Calle Sevilla was one of the prettiest in the convent.

At the end of the street was the old Church of Santa Catalina which was later converted into a kitchen.

In the Processional Room were an impressive number of images that are widely worshiped and used in processions by the community of nuns living at the convent. They included those from the convent's namesake, Catherine of Siena, to its patron saint and the beatified Sr. Ana de Monteagudo, which are paid homage throughout the year.

The saints of the Dominican order were likewise commemorated, each with their own feast which were sometimes open to the community. Some processions, such as that of the Lord of Palm Leaves, marched through the streets surrounding the cloister on Palm Sunday until a few years ago. 

The colorful mixed race saint, Martin of Porres, is also honored by a colorful procession. In addition to these processions, there were also others that stopped at the Church of Santa Catalina along their route, sometimes even entering the building.

In Arequipa, known as the 'Rome of Peru,' the religious fervor of the city's Catholics is expressed in a number of feasts in honor of its patron saints. Starting on January 1, when the Nazarene is paraded through the streets of San Isidro near the city's downtown area, there isn't a single month of the year in which a procession isn't found in one of the districts!

The chapel was the first item to be constructed in the convent from the 17th century. After 1871, it was converted into a community kitchen and contained a dispensary, bakery, stoves and a 'water hole' which was later closed up. The walls were blackened with soot from the the coal and wood-burning stove. 

The original utensils now sit unused.

Nearby was the communal bathing area. Note the cross on the wall in the third picture.

Santa Catalina was also the home of the Blessed Ana de los Angeles Monteagudo (1602-1686) who was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1985. At the tender age of just three, Ana's parents decided she should receive "an education and moral formation" at the convent where she entered the cloisters as a student. When she was about ten, her parents withdrew her so she could rejoin society and prepare for marriage. She returned to join the order, however, after having a vision of Santa Catalina giving her a Dominican nun's habit.

Sr. Ana de los Angleses established a reputation as a miracle worker and faith healer, with nuns writing of cases where ailing patients miraculously recovered after touching her possessions. She reportedly made prophecies and experienced frequent visions.

The cell where Sr. Ana lived was made into a chapel, a place for prayer and pilgrimage for her worshipers.

The small room in Sr. Ana's cell where she died contained many of her possessions.

Two days before Sr. Ana died, an ill painter captured her image in this portrait, the only testimony of her true likeness left behind for posterity. Some believe he was completely cured of all his ailments when he finished the painting.

When Pope John Paul II visited Arequipa in early 1985, he beatified the Venerable Sister because various miracles and predictions were attributed to her. The chalice, thurible and incense burner were used by Pope John Paul II during St. Ana's beatification ceremony.

Prior to St. Ana's beatification ceremony presided over by Pope John Paul II, another, more intimate ceremony was held, in keeping with the rules of the Church. That was the fifth and final transfer of her remains, 299 years since she had died, to her altar in the Church of the Convent of Santa Catalina de Siena. The wooden urn with lead overlay contained the sacred remains of St. Ana.

I read that this bust of Sister Ana de los Angeles was made based on a "facial reconstruction by analyzing her skull using photogrammetric techniques and 3D digitalization."

Passages of the lives of saints were read during meals in the Refectory or nuns' community dining area.

The last and largest of the three cloisters within the convent was the Great Cloister, constructed between 1715 and 1721. 

Thirty-two beautiful frescoes by an anonymous painter decorated the cloister walls. The majority of them showed biblical scenes depicting the life of the Virgin Mary, while the rest portrayed the life of Jesus. 

The cloister was bordered by five, very austere confessionals on one side to ensure the nuns retained a degree of privacy during their declarations.

The cell that had belonged to Sr. Juana de San Jose Arias was very unlike all the others we'd toured. As it was several steps down from the cloister, it felt more basement-like; the walls and ceiling were heavily decorated; and it had neither a kitchen or patio.

I remember being struck that the alcoves for the beds in the cells looked very small, even taking into account how much smaller Peruvian women are today than we are in North America. 

From the Choir Loft, we could see the Convent's church, rebuilt in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The earlier 17th century church was destroyed by earthquakes. 

The church was off limits to tourists and could only be viewed from the choir loft.

Above the high altar was the image of the Lady of Good Remedy, the patron saint of the Trintarian Order, to which St. Ana of the Angels belonged.

If the photos of the Church aren't as good as I would have liked, it was because I had to take them through these slats!

From the choir loft, we climbed old stone steps to the roof.

Built in 1748, the convent's steeple had four bronze bells, facing the streets around the monastery.

I've read that many people only spend about an hour in the 'city within a city' that is the St. Catherine of Siena Convent located in the beautiful 'White City ' of Arequipa. We didn't dawdle as we wandered through the Convent but, hardly before we knew it, three hours had passed. As I have written before when visiting other religious institutions, I marveled at the deep and abiding faith professed by the cloistered nuns. 

I was also chilled, however, by the sacrifices of daughters who were forced to enter, often at young ages, and who had little or no contact with the outside world including family. That of course is the perspective or bias of a woman growing up in North America during the mid-20th century and later compared to women from almost 500 years ago in colonial Peru. 

Next post: Southern Peru's Canyon Country!

Posted on February 4th, 2018, from Littleton, Colorado.