Beyond Guadalupe: The Eucharist and the Cult of Saints in Late Colonial Mexico City

Most scholarly attention on the cult of saints in Latin America has focused on the Virgin Mary.  This scholarly emphasis seems to coincide with the prominence of the Virgin within both colonial and modern Latin American religion.  My paper, based on an examination of almost two thousand last wills and testaments from eighteenth-century Mexico City, re-examines this assumption.  It argues that the faithful of Mexico City, despite strong ties to the Virgin, focused much of their devotion on Christ, especially Christ's sacramental presence in the Eucharist.  Thus, the essay calls for a more careful scholarly investigation of colonial religious practices.  The paper also re-evaluates the prominence of the Virgin of Guadalupe within the devotional life of eighteenth-century Mexico City.  Often portrayed as the primary locus of Marian devotion within late-colonial Mexico City, evidence from the wills shows that she was only one of a handful of popular Marian advocations in New Spain's capital.