Santo Domingo: A Country with a Future

by Otto Schoenrich

The less educated people of the cities and most of the country people not only hold their priests in great respect, but are blindly superstitious. It is common to find crosses in the courtyards of country houses, placed there to keep evil spirits away. Frequently also, three crosses are seen in conspicuous places near the roadside or even in the middle of the road. They are supposed to propitiate the Almighty, and pious persons mumble prayers as they pass them. When the destruction wrought by the Martinique volcano became known here, the dismay of the countrymen was responsible for more than one "calvario" (calvary), as these collections of crosses are called. It is especially desired by the country people to receive the last sacraments from the priests before death. On one occasion far out in the country I met a crowd of people engaged in transporting a dying man many miles to the priest in the nearest town. When asked why the priest was not called to the sick man, they explained innocently: "He couldn't come. The priest is too fat."

There are in the territory of the Republic several shrines of more than usual renown, which at certain seasons of the year attract crowds of worshipers, some coming all the way from Porto Rico. Wonderful cures of invalids are registered which recall the miracles of Lourdes. The most celebrated of these churches is the one on the Santo Cerro, the Holy Hill, built on the exact spot where forces of Columbus planted their cross when defending the hill against the Indians. After the Indians had stormed the place all their efforts to destroy the cross were unavailing, so the story goes, and they were finally driven to precipitate flight by the apparition of the Virgin, sitting on the cross. A church was founded on the spot and a convent near by. During the dark years of the colony the convent was abandoned and fell to ruin but at no time was a priest lacking to look after the site of the miracle. In the time of Heureaux the humble wooden chapel then crowning the hill was replaced by a larger but modest brick church, the greater part of the bricks being carried up from the ruins of the old city of La Vega which lie at the foot of the hill. The church occupies an eminence overlooking the great Royal Plain. Its most prized treasure, which is reverently kissed by the priest before he shows it to the stranger, consists of two splinters about an inch long, of black wood, parts of the original cross of Columbus, enclosed in another small cross of gold filigree work. A larger piece of the original cross is kept in the cathedral at Santo Domingo City, to be exhibited on special occasions. The pieces of the original cross carried away by the Spaniards were enough to make a score of crosses, yet nevertheless there was always some wood left, which circumstance was heralded as an additional miracle.

Within the church on the Holy Hill, in one of the chapels, there is a hole in the stone floor a little over two feet square and deep, which is pointed out as the exact place where the cross of Columbus stood. There is nothing so coveted by pilgrims as to be able to kneel in this hole and offer up their prayers. The soil from this spot is credited with strange powers, such as that of healing wounds on which it is laid, and that of causing floods to subside, when sprinkled on the troubled waters. The late Archbishop Meriño assured me that the miraculous nature of the spot is evidenced by the fact that however much soil is taken out of the hole, the bottom thereof always retains the same level, but my later inspection of the dry yellow earth at the bottom disclosed nothing unusual. Near the Santo Cerro church is the trunk of the nispero tree, gnarled with age, from which Columbus is said to have cut the wood for his cross. All around are miserable shacks, inhabited, so the pure-minded priest of the church sorrowfully told me, by people the conduct of many of whom is quite at variance with the holiness supposed to pervade the place.

The town of Bayaguana, to the northeast of Santo Domingo City, also attracts the faithful, especially about the first of the year, by reason of the fame of the "Cristo de Bayaguana," a very ancient figure of Christ in the church of that town. In the same way Higuey in the eastern part of the island is specially noted for its shrine of the "Altagracia," a picture of the Virgin, of which tradition says that in the early days of the colony it was given by an aged mysterious stranger to the father of a devout maiden who had pined therefor. The church is built on the site of an orange tree under which, it is said, the picture was first admired by the girl and her relatives; the trunk of this tree is shown behind the altar of the church. Pilgrimages to this place take place preferably about the twenty-first of January and the miracles ascribed to the Virgin are astounding. Miracles of quite a different nature are attributed to an image of Saint Andrew, in the capital. The populace confidently believe that as sure as this figure is carried to the street an earthquake will follow.

There are always several altars in the churches, surmounted by figures of the saints to whom they are dedicated. Some of these statues are quite beautiful, others, in some of the poorer churches, are hideous. As in other Spanish countries the churches are bare of seats, and people who attend either send small chairs before the service, or stand. It is not unusual to see well dressed ladies carrying their chairs to church. Women are much more in evidence than men, and the Dominican woman is not different from her sisters in other countries, for a new hat or dress is apt to awaken in her an irresistible yearning to go to church. Young men are fond of attending, too, but it is to be feared that in many cases their object is to see the young ladies rather than to hear the sermon.

The custom of celebrating the saint's day instead of the birthday is followed, so that birthdays pass unperceived while the day dedicated in the calendar of the Catholic Church to the saint whose name a person bears, is the day which he celebrates and on which he receives the felicitations of his friends.

Christmas tide is not a time when presents are exchanged, and Christmas trees are not found, save rarely and where the foreign influence is strong. There is no lack of celebration, however. On Christmas Eve the churches are crowded and there are banquets and dances going on everywhere. In the cities the small boys amuse themselves by setting off fireworks. During the Christmas week dances are frequent, and in the country they continue sometimes for days to the lugubrious accompaniment of accordions and large drums. December the twenty-eighth, Holy Innocents' day, is All Fools' day, instead of April the first, it being argued that just as the innocents of Herod's day were made to suffer, so the innocents of this age should be persecuted. Many are the pranks perpetrated and the small boy is in his glory. On New Year's Eve many families receive their friends; there is generally some large ball, and the new year is ushered in with fireworks and other noises.

The great day of the year for the children is the sixth of January, the feast of Epiphany, or Three Kings' Day, as it is called in Santo Domingo. Just as the three wise men from the East brought presents to the infant Christ in ages past, so they now make the rounds and leave presents for deserving children, thus taking the place of our Santa Claus. The receptacles they choose for the good things they deliver are either the children's slippers or shoes, or boxes made ready by the little ones. For weeks before the anxiously awaited day, letters are written to the Kings, explaining what gifts would be acceptable, and are given to the parents who undertake to deliver them. The children are careful to facilitate the display of the Kings' generosity by placing their shoes or boxes in conspicuous places and filling the boxes with grass, so that the horses of the Kings can eat. Their thoughtfulness is rewarded, for on the following morning the visit of the Kings is attested by indubitable evidence, as there is an abundance of toys and sweets and the grass is often quite strewn about. Excited little ones are sure they heard the pawing of the horses on the balcony. The Kings usually show a magnanimous disregard of past offenses, but occasionally they leave a letter of advice or warning, and they have even been known to place a switch in the box of a particularly bad boy.

Easter is celebrated with great solemnity. In order to provide opportunity for observing all the ceremonies prescribed by the church, they are so arranged that the ceremonies corresponding to the commemoration of the death of Christ are begun on Thursday at noon and the celebration of the resurrection on Saturday at noon, and this is the order of dates accepted by the people in general. On Thursday and Friday soldiers form a guard of honor before the churches, and up to Easter of 1906 there was a strict prohibition of any vehicle going through the streets between Thursday noon and Saturday noon. Not a wheel was permitted to turn in this period, giving rise to much inconvenience and discomfort. Since 1906 a more liberal view has prevailed. At this time as on certain other church festivals, solemn religious processions wind through the streets.

The church has charge of several small hospitals and orphan asylums. A few schools in the Republic are also under its auspices, but in general religious education is much neglected.