Santa Catalina Monastery
The Santa Catalina Convent of the Sisters of the Order of St. Catherine of Siena is located near the center of the Peruvian city of Arequipa in the Andes, over 2300 meters above sea level. The monastery and the church are dedicated to St. Consecrated to Catherine of Siena . The approximately twenty nuns currently living in the monastery live in a side wing that belongs to the enclosure . Most of the monastery buildings can be visited.
history
The monastery was founded in 1579 by the wealthy widow María de Guzmán. The Viceroy of Peru , Francisco de Toledo , had previously approved the construction. On October 2nd, 1580 the monastery and church of St. Catherine consecrated and the first sisters gives its consent to the habit to apply. Santa Catalina extended over 20,000 m² in Arequipa, known as the "white city", and was badly damaged by earthquakes several times in 1582 and in the 1960s. The monastery, built in the style of the Mudéjares , is characterized by its walls whitewashed in lively colors.
Originally the monastery was a boarding school for the daughters of wealthy Spanish families who were taught by the nuns . According to tradition at the time, the second daughter or son of a family would enter the spiritual life, and Santa Catalina would later only accept candidates from wealthy families. If they wanted to become choir sisters, they had to give the monastery a dowry of around 2,400 silver coins as dowry , as well as numerous items on a list, such as a statue, a painting, a lamp and robes. From the equipment of the nuns' cells it can be seen that most of them were very wealthy.
Santa Catalina temporarily housed up to 150 nuns and 300 servants. The servants washed the nuns' laundry and did the shopping for them, since the nuns live in seclusion. The French writer and women's rights activist Flora Tristan reported in detail about the monastery and the nuns of Santa Catalina in 1834 about her six-day guest stay in the cloister in 1834 . According to Flora Tristan, they lived far more easily than their strict rules would have led one to expect.
Pope Pius IX In 1871, Sr. Josefa Cadena OP, a Dominican woman who was known for her adherence to the rules , sent to Santa Catalina to reform the monastery. Sr. Josefa had the lavish dowry sent back to Europe, dismissed the servants and gave slaves their freedom. She gave both of them the choice of either living as sisters in the convent or leaving the convent.
Since a renovation of the monastery in 1970, parts of the Santa Catalina monastery have been open to the public. Since then, the monastery has been one of the most important sights in southern Peru. The alleys of the complex are named after Spanish cities.
Footnotes
- ↑ Flora Tristan: My trip to Peru . Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1983. ISBN 3-7973-0406-4 . About Santa Catalina pp. 241-253.
Web links
Coordinates: 16 ° 23 ′ 42.7 ″ S , 71 ° 32 ′ 12.5 ″ W.