A Five Years' Residence in Buenos Ayres, During the years 1820 to 1825: Containing Remarks on the Country and Inhabitants; and a Visit to Colonia Del SacramentoLove, George Thomas
History
A Five Years' Residence in Buenos Ayres, During the years 1820 to 1825: Containing Remarks on the Country and Inhabitants; and a Visit to Colonia Del Sacramento
Love, George Thomas
Buenos Aires (Argentina) -- Description and travel; Colonia del Sacramento (Uruguay) -- Description and travel
In January, 1824, an archbishop, named Don Juan Muzi, arrived from Rome
with a large suite, in a Sardinian brig, which hoisted the Papal flag in
addition to her own, and fired a salute. Some time ago, such an event
would have put the whole town in commotion; as it was, few attended to
see him land, and his reception by the government was any thing but
cordial: he shortly after departed for Chili. During his abode, he
lodged at Faunch's Hotel, and there gave his benedictions to the
crowds that visited him, who were mostly females, attracted, I thought,
more from curiosity than from any other motive. The manifest of the
archbishop's effects raised a smile:--there were beads, crosses, and
every trifling appendage of the church. The archbishop himself, from his
venerable aspect and mild manners, engaged the esteem of all; but the
Papal power is on the wane here now, whatever it might have been in
other times. The Catholic church, however, under the care of a liberal
priesthood, and shorn of its superstitions, will insure the respect of
all countries.
A church, in Catholic countries, ever possesses something to strike the
eye, though there may not be service going on. There are generally to
be seen numbers of poor old women, before their saint, counting their
beads, the low murmurings of their prayers alone breathing the silence
of the place: many times have I advanced with cautious steps, fearing
to interrupt their devotions. The absence of a congregation gives one,
likewise, an opportunity of a closer inspection of the glittering
altars, virgins, saints, and Madonas. No fear exists that sacrilegious
hands would dare purloin any thing from the sacred walls; alas! in
England, our thieves would not be so scrupulous.
The churches, on a Sunday, or feast day, are worthy a stranger's
attention; and he must be cold indeed, that can view such an assemblage
of beauty unmoved: the dress, the veil, and prostrate persons; indeed,
we might picture other Lauras besides Petrarch's: it is almost enough to
make one turn renegade, forsake the religion of our fathers, and rush
into the bosom of a church so enchanting.
Public worship takes place at various hours: one mass, as early as six
in the morning, and the sweet girls and their mothers are seen hurrying
to church at that early hour.
Families going to mass are attended by slaves and servants carrying the
carpeting upon which they kneel. Of books they have few enough; and
would, I dare say, stare to see our London footmen, in gorgeous
liveries, looking like Austrian field-marshals, walking behind their
mistresses, with a load of books, to church, and the host of carriages
that attend a fashionable chapel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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