History of the Catholic Church in Honduras

CHURCH OF COMAYAGUA ON PALM SUNDAY.HONDURAS

CREATION OF THE BISHOPSTATE OF HONDURAS.

The first important religious event for Honduras. was the erection of his
bishopric on September 6. 1531 and the election to occupy it of Fr. Alonso
de Talavera (from Guzmán in the Royal Decrees of the Archive of the
Indies)), represented by Charles V, who seems not to have gone to the
Indies.

There are only memories of the second bishop, Cristóbal Pedraza ,

licentiate of Seville, appointed by Paul III on February 11. 1541.

Before his appointment as bishop Cristónal de Pedraza , he arrived in

Puerto Caballos on September 13, 1538 and in 1545 he began his work in
Honduras with the mission of bringing Christianity to the Indians. He was a
priest inclined to education and Knowing him as the “Protector of the
Indians”, he wrote the work “Relation of the Province of Honduras” in which
he made a brutal criticism of the Spanish conquerors, defending the
evangelizing work carried out by the missionary friars from their bishopric.

He was succeeded by Fr. Jerónimo de Corella who moved the

headquarters to Comayagua in 1561, after sending reports to the king and the
Pope and with their authorization.

Since the creation of the diocese and bishopric of Honduras, the

evangelization of the territory intensified, with especially religious
missionaries entering and among them the Franciscans, Mercedarians,
since Fray Jerónimo and during his diocesan administration entrusted the
evangelization of the entire territory to the friars . of the Franciscan Order
and the Order of Mercy .

Although along with the religious there was no shortage of diocesan priests
who for the most part remained as parish priests dependent on the bishopric in
the parishes of the newly founded towns .
 The aim was to evangelize and settle the Indians in urban centers:
Reductions, in Yoro, Olancho, Comayagua, north of the current Francisco
Morazán. Some missionaries lost their lives due to Indian resistance to being
converted.

FRANCISCAN EVANGELIZATION IN THE ERA OF THE COLONY .

a) Resistance of different indigenous groups to evangelization.

According to the traditions and memory kept among the elders of the
Taguacas and Lencas, it is said that in the year 1604 the first expedition led by
the friars Esteban Verdelete and Juan de Montegudo entered and, having
suffered work, hunger and hardship, they remained for for some years in the
region, teaching Christian doctrine and learning the language of these
indigenous people.

They returned to Guatemala and from there Father Verdelete went to

Spain to request official permission and support from the Crown for eight
missionaries to convert the indigenous people of Taguzgalpa. The missionary
Verdelete arrived in the province of Honduras in the year 1608, in the company
of Fray Juan de Monteagudo and crossing rough mountains and mighty rivers,
they managed to persuade about 130 indigenous people to settle in the Río
de las Piedras, in the Olancho valley. . However, difficulties in maintaining
control in the missions led the missionaries to request military support.
About twenty-five soldiers were sent, who only aggravated the situation.
As a result of the above, the missionaries "... were killed in defense of the
gospel at the hands of the Lenca Indians in the year 1612, according to
the most accurate traditions." According to the testimony given by an elderly
mulatto named Juan de Padilla, at the beginning of September of the year
1614, the priest Cristóbal Martínez and the lay religious Don Juan de
Baena, from the convent of San Francisco de Guatemala, arrived at the port
of Truxillo. . These priests made several entries into the region, catechizing,
baptizing and instructing the recently converted indigenous people in the
mysteries of faith. In order to seek greater support and especially to request
missionaries to reinforce his evangelizing work, the religious Baena traveled to
Guatemala.

FRANCISCAN FATHERS IN THE EVANGELIZATION OF HONDURAS.

“And having touched God for this conversion, blessed Father Friar.
Benedict of San Francisco, a priest of exemplary life, and having arrived
at those places, and all three working with great spirit in this evangelical
harvest, reducing many infidels and baptizing them, building churches
and indoctrinating them in the law of God, they suffered martyrdom hands
of the Albatina or Taguacas Indians, in the year 1623.
”

FRANCISCAN MARTYRS IN THE COLONY. HONDURAS.

It is stated that between 1622 and 1623, these missionaries worked inland
among the Paya indigenous people , they managed to settle 700 indigenous
people in seven towns and baptize another five thousand. However, with
their death in 1623, at the hands of a group of indigenous Albatuynas or
Taguacas , these towns remained outside Spanish control from that year
until 1661, when missionary activities resumed. In the course of the years
between 1623 and 1661, it is insisted that
“… the Xicaque Indians, Hapuises, did a lot of damage in the valleys of
Olancho and , the paias did the same in the valleys of Agalta, being
pernicious to each other, unfaithful, doing as much evil as they could, like
barbarian people, with no law other than their passions, governed by the
devil by his soothsayers and magicians.” In view of the above, Captain Don
Bartolomé de Escoto, after presenting a report with data provided by the
residents of Olancho, obtained authorization to enter with armed men.

The group was made up of residents of the region, who offered to

participate without pay, because they were directly interested in the company,
accompanied by some Christianized Indians from the towns of Tecasinti and
Poteca. The first entry was made through the Guayape River, in the year 1662,
during the days close to Lent.

Despite having made three entries, it was not possible to apprehend the
indigenous people, since they retreated into the mountains . These
successive failures led them to become convinced of the need to change their
method and replace military conquest with pacification. In the year 1667, Escoto
traveled to Guatemala to request the support of some missionaries for his
enterprise of subduing the rebellious Indians of this region.

His management was successful in getting the Franciscan friars

Pedro de Ovalle and Fernando de Espino authorized to travel to the
province of Comayagua in their company .

Upon arriving in the Olancho region, Father Espino dedicated himself to

populating San Buenaventura and Father Ovalle moved to the town of Santa
María, located four leagues from the first. In the year 1667, Father Ovalle
returned to Guatemala, returning a year later accompanied by Friar
Antonio de Verzian. They carry with them a bulk image of Our Lady of the
Clean Conception, which was delivered to the church of Santa María. By
the year 1676, six villages had been established in this region: Santa María,
San Buenaventura, San Pedro, San Felipe, San Sebastián and San
Francisco, which had an approximate population of 600 indigenous
people.
 INDIAN CHILDREN IN THE TRUJILLO REGION. HONDURAS .

b) The Evangelization of the Payas Indians.

In a report sent to the King by the Bishop of Honduras, Fray Alonso de

Vargas y Abarca , in the month of February 1696, on the state of the Payan
missions in charge of the order of San Francisco , he points out that: “The
valley of Olancho, the jurisdiction of this bishopric, is very extensive.
Visiting this bishopric (which I have done to date five times since I came)
is more than a hundred leagues away, there are many other spaces that
are included and surrounded by the North Sea, the jurisdiction of Segovia
- which touches to the bishopric of Nicaragua - and to the tip of Castilla,
which is the Port of Truxillo of this bishopric." In the year 1671,
Father Ovalle was entrusted with the catechization of the Indians of the Paya
nation. To fulfill this order, at the end of that year he arrived at the town of San
Felipe to deliver the ornament, the campaign and the canvas, and from there he
would march in search of the so-called Paya Indians. On January 25 of the
following year, he arrived at the town of Catacamas, located sixteen leagues
from San Felipe:
 LARGE HONDURIAN FAMILY.

“And proposing to them that he wanted to enter their towns to preach the
sacred gospel, they replied that the road was very rough and difficult to
travel, and that they did not want to take him that way. Further urging the
father commissioner and exposing himself to any danger for the
propagation of the faith, he decided to enter with them - taking in his
company four ladino people, the interpreter and some Indians from Real
and Catacamas who carried a bulk image of our Father San Francisco and
the ornament to celebrate mass.

After three days, overcoming many difficulties and walking most of the
way on foot, they reached the settlements of the Paias Indians - and
because one of the three who served as guides had gone ahead to give
them notice - they went out onto the road, to receive the father, many
men, women and children, with garlands of flowers in their caves as a
sign of peace and joy.” Within twenty days he had baptized nearly two
hundred indigenous people and ordered the construction of a hermitage, which
he named after San Francisco, in honor of whom the town was founded. Later
he headed to the Agalta Valley, through the town of Manto, and upon reaching
the town of Gualaco, he ordered the construction of a hermitage. In the month
of February 1673, a new preacher joined, the priest Pedro de Estrada. Both
religious men headed towards the Guayape River, in the company of
Captain Bartolomé Escoto, where they made several foundations and
moved the town of San Francisco to a place called Pataste, for which they
paid a certain amount to the Indians of El Real and Catacamas, in
exchange for Help build the church . In the year 1679, while the Bishop was
visiting Olancho, he was asked to go and confirm the indigenous people of the
region, since none of them had received this sacrament . In the year 1690, a
new visit was made to this mission. When reporting on their condition, it
is said that one of the fundamental problems that limit their progress and
stability is the absence of missionaries, who do not always attend this
mission and are limited to wandering around the surrounding priesthoods
. Around the year 1698, the priest Rodrigo de Betancur reports that only two
priests remain and that they are also separated in a region where although
there are about four hundred baptized and a little more than three hundred
converted, many remain unbaptized. The above despite the manifest interest,
for years, in providing due attention to these missions, as the way to incorporate
these territories and their inhabitants into the area controlled by the colonial
administration.

And the best way to achieve this, according to the recommendation of

the Bishop of Honduras Rodrigo de Vargas y Abarca , is to transform this
mission and reduction into doctrine , for which it would be divided into two,
the first would include San Francisco and San Sebastián and the other would
include the remaining towns.

CHURCH OF GUALACO. HONDURAS.

Added to the interest of converting the missions into doctrine is the

concern on the part of the colonial authorities to provide land to the Paya
Indians who were located in the ejidos of the towns of Santa María, San
Buenaventura and San José, in the valley. of Gualaco, in order to achieve
their complete evangelization, thus preventing them from escaping again.
At the beginning of the 19th century, there were 290 indigenous people in
the Luquique mission and around 300 had been established in the
Olancho missions. In the year 1808, the Franciscan friar José Antonio de
Liendo y Goicoechea entered the territories inhabited by the Payas and
preached in the region of Agalta, organizing the reductions of Pacura and
San Esteban Tonjagua. Father Goicoechea justified the need for a new entry
into Payan lands and, above all, for establishing permanent indigenous
settlements with the following arguments: “…establishing the Indians there is
very useful for commerce, for the neighbors and landowners who are
located there.” in the foothills and plains of the Agalta mountains. The
reduction of Pacura is more than thirty leagues away from Trujillo and is
an obligatory passage for the residents of the valley to transport cattle,
meat, mules, butter and other provisions, so that the reduction would
provide accommodation and food to travelers. If the government sends
soldiers and prisoners, they find accommodation and security. The
existence of these towns would provide comfort to more than 20 cattle
ranches established in the Valley. “

c) Missions and Reductions in Jicaque lands.

The purpose of the missions and evangelization projects carried out by

the Spanish in the border territories located to the east of the province of
Honduras was to create the conditions to establish self-sufficient
communities based on agriculture.

However, the short life of most of these missions meant that this goal
was rarely achieved. It was not until the 18th century that some permanent
indigenous settlements were established and the mission of Luquique or
Lucuguey, in the heart of the Jicaque territory, became the main center of
missionary activity.
After the first attempts at evangelization of the indigenous people who inhabited
the eastern border of the territory colonized by the Spanish in the province of
Honduras, especially of the indigenous people considered as payas and
jicaques, which were carried out during the decades of 1610 and 1620 by
priests of the Order of Saint Francis, the evangelizing enterprise stopped,
resuming four decades later. Between the years of 1661 and 1662, the towns
of Santa María and San Felipe were founded, as part of the three entries made
by Captain Bartolomé Escoto.

During the first five years these reductions did not have a missionary in
charge and it was not until the year 1667 that the priest Fernando de
Espino arrived, accompanied by the friar Pedro de Ovalle. Both religious
arrived in Comayagua in the month of June of that year. Father Ovalle stayed
momentarily in Siguatepeque and the Reverend Fernando Espino headed
towards the territory inhabited by the Jicaques, at a distance of one hundred
and twenty leagues from Comayagua.

When the doctrinal friar who would serve Siguatepeque arrived,

Father Pedro de Ovalle went to meet Espino, who was settling San Buena
Ventura, in Paya territory.

Later Ovalle moved to the town of Santa María. Here he found about
fourteen or fifteen houses and about sixty people, both adults and children, of
which half were mulattoes, ladinos and Christianized Indians from the town of
Tecasenti and the other recently baptized Jicaque Indians. They soon came into
conflict with Captain Bartolomé Escoto, whom they accused of justifying his
promotions using false reports to the ecclesiastical authorities and who, while
Escoto has only worked providing reports on his merits , “…. Religion has
worked on everything, both physically, laying the foundations, opening
paths and paying for even the Indians who have served as guides, as well
as spiritually and in terms of divine worship, because as will be said later,
everything that the churches have religion has done it.” At the end of the
year 1674 they sent Father Lorenzo de Guevara from Guatemala, who
arrived in Comayagua in January 1675 and immediately went to the town
of Santa María, of the Jicaque nation . In this place he only found fourteen
indigenous people, since the others had retreated to the mountains, and he
managed to get out about fifteen again. In the month of September he went out
again with some Christian Indians to the mountains of Ciali, where he brought
out nine baptized people who had rebelled years before. In the year 1689 it was
decided that an entry should be made with weapons and soldiers . “Which was
done, with Don Rodrigo Navarro being captain, with no other fruit than to
recognize the land and see its towns, because the Indians had fled
without being able to treat themselves – although they were seen and a
guide was taken.” The following year a new entry was made, led by
the same captain and the priest Manuel Fernández. They were not able to
reduce the indigenous people and by force they apprehended about
seventy-six, who were located in the Yoro valley. However, some fled and
others became ill, so it did not seem advisable to continue with the armed
conquest, nor to forcibly keep them in place .” Between the years of 1747
and 1751, the College of Propaganda Fide was commissioned with the spiritual
conquest of the Xicaque Indians of the Muliá and Leán mountains. This at the
request of the Governor and General Commander of Arms of the Province
of Honduras, Don Juan Vera. This new missionary enterprise was led by
priests Joseph Ramírez and Domingo Antonio San Raphael.
MERCEDARIAN CONVENT OF TEGUCIGALPA.

MERCEDARIAN EVANGELIZATION IN THE TIME OF THE COLONY.

The first missionaries who arrived in Honduras were the friars of the
Order of Our Lady of Mercy. We have already indicated that Fray
Alejandro , the priest who accompanied Columbus in 1502 on his journey
where he touched down on the mainland of the continent, arriving at Punta
Caxinas where he officiated. first mass 508 years ago, he was a Mercedarian
originally from Valencia.

CRISTOBAL DE OLID.

E1 P. Juan de las Varillas who in 1524 took with him the license ciado Alonso
de Zuazo from Cuba to Mexico City along with Fr. Gonzalo de Pontevedra (who
died on the island of Víboras), was one of Hernán Cortés' chaplains in his
former request to Honduras in that year, when Captain Cristóbal del Olid
rose up with the army of Cortés, who went in his bus is left over. After two
years and months of living in Las Higueras, they both returned to Havana. The
p. Rods I found in Honduras established a residence in 1525 to evangelize
the region.

But it was in 1550 when, at the request of the president of the Court of
Guatemala, Fr. Dardón sent Fr. Nicolás del Valle for fun give two missionary
convents, that of Gracias a Dios and that of Ten coa, while that of
Valladolid in the Comayagua Valley was founded by Fr. Jerome Clement in
1552-1553.

In the service information that Fr. del Valle made in Madrid on March 22,
1565, he said that he had been residing in the province of Honduras for twelve
years. And the bishop said of him in 1564 that he was "a person who has
worked a lot in this land in the preaching of the Evan gelio and doctrine of
the natives».

Tegucigalpa was founded in 1622 as a town of Spaniards, also The

Mercedarians founded there in the middle of the 17th century, with like those
of missions in Cururú and Chuluteca, and at the end of the 17th century
those of administration of doctrines such as Aguacaterique and llano de
Tencas, Tumbla and Zutituca or Cares.

. The Franciscans arrived later in 1574, so when the town of Real de

Minas de Tegucigalpa emerged in 1578, the Franciscan friars obtained the royal
license to found a convent , that of San Diego, and since there was already a
regulation of the kingdom that they could not function. convents of
different orders, the Mercedarians had to settle in Santa Lucía, a distant
mining site a few leagues from Tegucigalpa.
 CHURCH OF SORROWS. HONDURAS.

When the King of Spain lifted the ban, the Mercedarians of Santa Lucía
moved to the town of Tegucigalpa in 1680 and obtained, through purchase
and transfer from the Mayor's Office, a large property at the end of the so-
called Cuesta del Río where they established a plaza and On the eastern
side they built the Convent of Our Lady of La Merced and a temple
incorporated into the building dedicated to San Pedro de Nolasco and our
Lady of Las Mercedes. The La Merced complex has a lot of history: In the
cloisters of the Convent in 1701, the Creole lady María de Mendoza, wife of
the Sergeant of the Spanish Arms Juan de Peralta, founded the first
hospital in Tegucigalpa, a center that lasted a very short time for reasons

economics
.(www.merced.org.ar/Biblioteca%20Virtual%20Mercedaria/Mercedarios%.
CHRIST OF LAS MERCEDES IN SANTA LUCÍA.

OTHER AGENTS OF THE EVANGELIZATION OF HONDURAS.

Although, as stated above, it was the Franciscans and Mercedarians, and

especially the former, who carried the weight of the evangelization of Honduras,
other religious orders were also present, although in a less institutionalized
form, first of all the Order of Saint Dominic.
 The Dominicans had their foundation in Comayagua, for example, the
Dominican bishop Alonso de la Cerda was consecrated bishop of Comayagua
(1577), he made efforts for evangelization in the central and western region of
[
Honduras, applying a policy of concentration and reduction of dispersed towns,
remained in his Central American diocese until his appointment as bishop of La
Plata in Charcas (1587)

The Dominican Antonio de Remesal also passed through Honduras,

arriving in Camayagua in 1613 accompanied by another Dominican Alonso de
Galdo , who had been named bishop of Comayagua.

Dominico was also Vicente Navas y Márquez bishop of the province of

Honduras since 1794 who even carried out an agrarian project.

It is also worth mentioning Alonso Vargas Abarca, of the order of Saint

Augustine who arrived in Honduras as a missionary with others of his order in
the middle of the 17th century.
 COMAYAGUA CATHEDRAL. HONDURAS.

He was elevated on November 22, 1677 as Bishop of the Diocese of

Honduras, which then had its headquarters in Santa María de la Nueva
Valladolid de Comayagua.

In 1678, Bishop Alfonso Vargas y Abarca founded the first seminary in

Honduras, transforming the college-seminary founded by his predecessor
Bishop Jerónimo de Corella, in the city of Comayagua on February 20, 1564.
His apostolic administration ended when he died in 1697.

This leads us to talk briefly about the history of education in Honduras.

The origins of education in Honduras date back to 1539, when Don

Cristóbal de Pedraza, “Protector of the Indians” in the city of Gracias a Dios,
opened the first parish school to teach Christian doctrine and the first letters
of the alphabet. ; counting on the parish priest, Presbítero Álvarez, to teach it.

Twenty-five years later, Bishop Fray Jerónimo de Corella opened the

Grammar Chair in Comayagua for the children of neighbors and conquerors.

Later in 1602, at the request of Fray Gaspar de Quintanilla and

Andrada Bishop of Honduras , a chair of Latin Grammar was opened in the
city of Comayagua, which was erected and founded by Royal Decree of Philip II
on September 29 of that same year. .

The Priest Fray Esteban Verdelete was appointed to carry it out,

who served it without the stipulated income of two hundred pesos located
in the town of Colopele in the jurisdiction of Gracias a Dios, asking in
exchange that a portable altar, ornaments and sacred vessels be erected
for him.
 THE CLEAN CONCEPTION OF COMAYAGUA.

Always in the city of Comayagua in 1662, Bishop Fray Alonso de Vargas y

Abarca founded the Colegio San Agustín, which emerged as a Seminary
School with classes in Spanish and Latin Grammar, Mathematics, History
and Theology and established the Chair of Morals for training. of clerics .

Bishop Fray Antonio López de Guadalupe arrived in Comayagua in

1731 and began the construction of a building suitable for the Seminary
College, which was completed in 1733.

That same year the Tridentino College building was solemnly

inaugurated, when the chairs of Latinity, Canons and Mathematics had already
been established.
 This fact marks the origin of higher education in Honduras. This
prelate founded the chair of Philosophy which, together with those of
Grammar and Morals, gave substance to the teaching. He also gave the
necessary constitutions to the new teaching center, achieving that by
Royal Decree of November 7, 1738, SM authorized the new chair and
endowed it with two hundred pesos that the Priest José Simón de Zelaya,
builder of the beautiful cathedral of Tegucigalpa, who had been named
head, was to receive.

At the Tridentino school, the title of professor was awarded to those who
had the academic degree of doctor and the title of professor to those who had a
lower degree.

Fray José Antonio Murga came from Guatemala to Tegucigalpa in 1804, in

order to teach a Grammar class and another Latin class to more than twenty
students.

In relation to the Company of Jesus, we must now refer that in 1871 they
expelled 72 Jesuits from Guatemala, who embarked towards Amapala and
did not even let them touch Honduran soil; This prevented us from
celebrating today the 129th anniversary of the arrival of the Jesuits to
Honduras.

However, the Jesuits did not give up. In 1946 they were invited by the
Bishop. José de la Cruz Turcios, particularly to attend to missions of the towns
and civilized Indians of the department of Yoro.

The Pope received the request and asked the Society of Jesus to
send missionaries to Honduras. In October 1946 the first Jesuits arrived in
Honduras, they were Jaime O'neill and Luis Smith.
AUGUSTINE RELIGIOUS IN HONDURAS.

THE RELIGIOUS IN THE EVANGELIZATION OF HONDURAS.

The evangelization of Honduras during colonial times was the one that
possibly had the fewest pastoral agents in all of Hispanic America. We have
already seen how Franciscans and Mercedarians are the orders that stood out
in this mission, in addition to the secular clergy located in the parishes. But also
in these cases the number of people belonging to these groups was rather
small, many of the convents did not have more than two religious, given this
scarcity it would be strange to be able to find monasteries or convents and nuns
in the task of evangelization. .

In Honduras the only centers we found for women were “A House for
Badly Married Women ” founded at the beginning of the 17th century in
Comayagua by Bishop Fray Alonso Galdo and another “House for Cloistered
Recollections ” a kind of asylum for abandoned mestizas and Indian women,
there. They were taught to cook, sew, embroider, etc.

In the middle of the 18th century, the Company of Mary as well as some
cloistered nunneries in 1756 began to take care of the instruction of girls.
 THE CHURCH IN THE PROCLAMATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

Honduras achieved Independence as a nation in 1841 , like other Central

American nations, the proclamation of independence from Spain took place
years before, but until the indicated date Honduras had a few years in which it
joined Mexico, then the Federation of the Central American countries until
it finally achieved, as has been said, its independence as a country in the
year 1841 .

Next, as the title of the paragraph indicates, we talk about ecclesiastical

participation in the proclamation of independence, we do so by transcribing an
interview with the historian Rolando Sierra.

“The feeling of freedom begins to awaken in the hearts of the Honduran Creoles
of the 18th century. And it was through the Catholic Church that these
ideas were transcended, since relevant figures of the clergy stand out for
their participation as tutors and trainers of leaders of national political life.

The national historian Rolando Sierra, an expert on pre-independence

issues and whose book “Church and liberalism in Honduras in the 19th
century” is an example of this, details a series of events that led to
independence.

In a small space in his personal library and exclusively for EL

HERALDO , he explains how characters such as Father José Trinidad Reyes
or Father José Antonio Márquez fought for freedom.

What was the role of the Catholic Church in the independence process of
Central America ?

The role of the Church is expressed in three major trends: the first was a
group of clergy, priests who were in favor of independence and were,
perhaps, the main promoters of all of Central America. In fact we can see
priests in the figures of the heroes of independence in almost all countries. The
case of José Matías Delgado in El Salvador , Florencio Castillo in Costa
Rica, Francisco Antonio Márquez in Honduras , then it was a whole group
of priests who, inspired by the idea of the Enlightenment, advocated for
independence.

Likewise, there was another group of moderate priests who, although they
accepted independence, remained critical of it, especially regarding the
post-independence project, the Liberal, who was anticlerical in nature,
was against the clergy and especially against the assets of the Church.

And finally we have a group of priests and some bishops who clearly
directly opposed independence. But as a whole we can see that the majority
of the clergy at that time are the promoters of independence.

When do these independence movements begin in the country?

In the case of Honduras, since 1811, uprisings began to occur, certain pro-
independence demonstrations in the former kingdom of Guatemala, with
uprisings in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and specifically on January 1, 1812, an
uprising occurred in Tegucigalpa that was organized by two figures who
have to be rescued within the history of Honduras as fundamental figures
of the independence process, who were the Franciscan friars José
Heredia and Fray Antonio Rojas.

They lived in the San Francisco convent (what we know today as the
San Francisco de Tegucigalpa church, the oldest in the country). Together with
a group of about one hundred citizens they made a movement because at
that time the Tegucigalpa authorities wanted to be re-elected and the
uprising was to protest so that national figures were appointed and not
those who came directly from Spain . In turn, Father Heredia and Father
Rojas prepared many indigenous people in the cause of freedom, of
independence.

What was the participation of Father Francisco Antonio Márquez?

He is another fundamental figure in Honduras, which although it is true

is controversial, but is fundamental for the independence process. Father
Márquez studied in Guatemala during the time of Dionisio de Herrera, and the
great figures of independence, and upon his return to Honduras in 1807, he
made the first act in terms of freedom.

When his mother dies and leaves him some black slaves, the first
thing he does is free them and it is an act in the perspective of seeking
freedom and the abolition of slavery .

Father Márquez worked in different regions of the country and it was he

who in some way instructed Francisco Morazán when he was young , he
facilitated his readings. He was also the teacher of other great figures in the
political history of Honduras such as Joaquín Rivera , who was head of State
of Honduras, and he had a friendship with Dionisio de Herrera, in fact there is
a complete correspondence between them. His role was so prominent that
when independence occurred and the documents arrived in Honduras, Father
Márquez was in Texíguat and gathered the entire population and the first
thing he did was to have Joaquín Rivera read the Act of Independence and
in the As he read it, Father Márquez gave an explanation of the minutes.

Father Márquez is a central figure, because on the one hand he was the
one who trained several of the young people at that time, who would later
become heads of state, and then he is a fundamental figure because after
independence here there was an attempt to divide when Comayagua He
wanted to join Mexico and Tegucigalpa to Guatemala and Father Márquez
managed to maintain the unity of the province of Honduras , and that is
why the first Congress was held in Cedros, precisely looking for an intermediate
point between Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula.

The participation of Father José Trinidad Reyes was post-independence,

what was his contribution?

There were other priestly figures who did not exactly enter into the
independence period, but afterward, such as the figure of Father José
Trinidad Reyes, who was Honduran, Franciscan, had studied in
Guatemala and when the expulsion and closure of the congregations in
religious orders as federal government measures and anticlerical
measures, Father Reyes returns to Honduras and joins the ecclesial and
political life of the country .

FATHER KINGS .

One can see in Father Reyes a moderate independence liberal who opposed
certain issues of liberalism, such as attacks against the Church, but will fight for
freedom. Something very interesting about Father Reyes is that he was the
first to fight for the emancipation of women, in fact he wrote an essay
called “The Ideas of Sofía Seyers.”
Considering the influence of both characters in national history, Father
Márquez and Father Reyes, why is the latter better known?

Because official history was established under the government of Marco Aurelio
Soto and Ramón Rosa and that is where the first history texts began to be
established, the history of independence. Ramón Rosa appointed the then
priest Antonio Ramón Vallejo to write the first history of Honduras, but it
turns out that Rosa was a descendant of Father Reyes and rescues this
figure more. In fact, Ramón Rosa writes a biography of Father Reyes and does
not rescue other figures of the clergy as much, or he goes more for the
moderate figure that Father Reyes was, who was also his relative, and not other
figures.

We also entered into another discussion, Ramón Rosa was not liberal,
he was positivist, so figures like Márquez or other priests were more of the
liberal line, so there is an ideological change that greatly influences not rescuing
these figures, and also within a historiography of anticlerical, anti-
ecclesiastical court that was not going to rescue many figures of the
Church of that time.

After September 28, how long did it take for all of Honduras to know the
news about independence, did the Church contribute to this
dissemination?

It was a process, on September 28 they arrived in Comayagua and

Tegucigalpa. Then they arrived at Texíguat, Tocoa, and the main cities,
practically until November 1821, the entire country became informed about the
act of independence and the fundamental figure in the knowledge and
dissemination of the act of independence were the priests, in many of the
parishes of that time.

Who was the messenger who was in charge of delivering the act of
independence in each city?

It was a special mail that came from Guatemala. It was like a postal agency for
the time.
 JOSÉ SANTIAGO MILLA.

In your opinion, taking into account all this new data that several
historians have brought to light, is it necessary to update educational
texts?

I think it is important, especially now that we are approaching the

bicentennial of independence, to reread, review what we have written and
researched until now.

See the historiography, there are relatively few studies we have on

independence, we have a very important book by Dr. José Reina Valenzuela
called “Hondurans in the independence of Central America”, where he
rescues some of the figures that were not rescued in the liberal historiography
of the 19th century, so I think it is important to review, we have to do more
studies, more research, document the process, what it has meant for Honduras,
who participated.

There are fundamental Honduran figures who have not stood out, such as
the figure of the lawyer José Santiago Milla, from Gracias, who in fact is
one of the signatories of the independence act because he was the
representative of the lawyers, who was even imprisoned for walking
spreading the ideas of freedom.
THE COURTS OF CADIZ AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE AMERICAN
COLONIES.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AFTER INDEPENDENCE.

Once independence was achieved, the new Honduran state was organized.
However, this organization was hampered by rivalries between liberals and
conservatives, which produced political chaos and delayed the country's
development.

This fact was highlighted, among other things, in the various

constitutions that were drafted in a short period of time: the first in 1839,
the second in 1848, another in 1865, the next in 1873, the fifth in 1880, the
next in 1894

The country's political turmoil attracted the ambitions of individuals and

Central American and European nations.

The situation of the Church was in accordance with those in

power; the Liberals, such as the first Head of State of Honduras, Dionisio
de Herrera, sought to establish a new regime, according to modern
canons. This implied that it had to be a secular and non-denominational
State. A different opinion was that of the Vicar of the Catholic faith in
Honduras, Don Nicolás Irías, for whom the Church had to continue
enjoying all its ancient privileges and privileges . It should be noted that
both the Federal Constitution and the State Constitution of Honduras, approved
in 1825, excluded freedom of worship and proclaimed that Catholicism was the
sole and exclusive religion of the country. But other provisions caused the
rejection of the Vicar and, above all, the patriotic gatherings, which were a
form of popular education promoted by the Herrera government and in
which the constitutional principles, the ideas of liberalism and the
enlightened philosophy. The Vicar considered them propaganda of
heretics and excommunicated Chief Herrera. Herrera put the Vicar outside
the law.

FRANCISCO MOZARAN.

With the victory of Morazán, Vicar Irías also took the path of exile. Another
priest, but this one with very liberal convictions and actions, Priest Francisco
Antonio Márquez, as President of the State Congress of Honduras, was in
charge of introducing the legislation that reformed relations with the Church.

The tithe, a tax that everyone had to pay to the Church, was
abolished; The funds of the religious brotherhoods were affected to be
used for education; The real estate of the religious orders was
expropriated and passed into the power of the State; The validity of civil
marriage was approved.

The enlightened and liberal rationalists did not properly measure the roots that
Catholic religiosity had in consciences. Nor the social action that many entities
linked to the Church carried out, as was the case of the brotherhoods, which
functioned as instances of mutual aid for very diverse needs of the population.
High dignitaries such as Casaus y Torres or Irías also did not want to
understand the rationality of the modern State that was being tried to be
implemented and they clung to the old regime. In the conflict, the
institutions lost out, because the people in general did not understand the
reforms and the reformers themselves had to back down.
 The political instability of Honduras can be seen reflected in the
number and qualification of the presidents of the Republic from
independence to the present day.

This is the list of the presidents of Honduras practically to this day.

CARLOS ROBERTO FLORES.

XXI CENTURY.

Carlos Roberto Flores Facussé ( Liberal, 1998-2002) Ricardo Maduro Joest

(Nacional, 2002-2006) Manuel Zelaya Rosales (Liberal, 2006-2009) Roberto
Micheletti Baín (Liberal, 2009 ). /gobernantes-de-honduras.html)

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH OF HONDURAS TODAY. 2013.

a) THE DATA.

1.- Religions:

In recent years, both the Catholic Church and a large number of ecclesial
communities of Protestant inspiration, mainly of the Pentecostal line,
have experienced significant growth in the number of committed
parishioners. Perhaps due to improvements in communication routes , which
allow them; both the Catholic and Evangelical churches have television
channels, radio stations, newspapers, universities and internet pages.

On the other hand; The various Protestant churches are structured

by 3 confederations, the Association of Pastors of Honduras, the
Evangelical Confraternity of Honduras and the Apostolic Network of
Honduras .

In addition to these religions, there are smaller scale groups in

Honduras that profess other religions, such as: Islam , Judaism , and members
of the Rastafari movement among others. (Cf. Wikipedia)
 The statistics vary according to their origin, but it can be said that
between 40, 50 and 60% consider themselves Catholic, about 35 and 45%
members of one of the Christian denominations and to a lesser extent other
religions. Only about 8% consider themselves atheists.

CHOLUTECA CATHEDRAL.

2.- Diocese.

Choluteca (Territorial Prelature); historical , see Choluteca (Diocese)

Comayagua (diocese); historical , see Tegucigalpa (Archdiocese)

Comayagua (Diocese)

Immaculate Conception of the BVM in Olancho (Territorial Prelature); historical ,

see Juticalpa (Diocese)

Juticalpa (Diocese)

La Ceiba (Diocese)

San Pedro Sula (Apostolic Vicariate), historical , see San Pedro Sula (Diocese)

San Pedro Sula (Diocese)

Santa Rosa de Copán (Diocese)

Tegucigalpa (Archdiocese)

Trujillo (Diocese)

Yoro (Diocese).

Each diocese within the Church represents the universal Catholic

Church since it has all the means that make up the mystical Body of
Christ, therefore being self-sufficient from a religious point of view.
 In them are the bishop and his presbytery, parishes, with functions that
we could call maternal: sacraments, diverse groups, catechists, couples...
monks, nuns, religious men and women, secular institutes, which according to
their own charisms enrich the mystical body of Christ, brotherhoods,
brotherhoods, Christian family groups, lay people who have the mission of
evangelizing social structures and people. The Catholic Church in Honduras is
equipped with all these and other means . All these and other means make
up the Mystical Body of which Our Lord Jesus Christ is the head, which is
present in all places where the Catholic Church is established.

3.- Social presence of the Catholic Church in Honduras.

As a general rule, the social presence of a religion usually depends on several

factors, firstly on the number of its members, secondly on the faith and practice
of its members, thirdly on its presence in civil institutions, fourthly of the
institutions with which it is endowed.

The Catholic Church in Honduras, in addition to what has been

said in the previous sections, is present in the most varied social fields:
the field of education, social services to help minors, young people, the
elderly, especially through Cáritas in all its areas: parish, diocesan,
national; in the field of media: press, radio, television, internet,
brotherhoods and brotherhoods, popular religiosity...

This presence of the Honduran Catholic Church must and wants to be

and to a large extent is a service to society . This will to serve does not
prevent it from being seen in some cases as a power structure, which is
why it strives to constantly review its attitudes, motives and actions, since
there is no power stronger than religious power, because it modulates
and can dominate consciences.
 HOLY WEEK. PROCESSION.

b) Popular Religiosity.

Among the devotions that the Catholic people of Honduras have are
Eucharistic devotion and piety, passionate devotion and piety, and
devotion and piety to the Mother of God. We stop at the latter.
 THE VIRGIN OF SUYAPA PATRONS OF HONDURAS.

Once again the Honduran people surrendered and sought the

maternal protection of their patron saint: the Virgin of Suyapa. More than
two million faithful pilgrims flooded the national sanctuary, who, moved
by fervor and devotion, arrived to celebrate the 265th anniversary of their
finding

From all corners of the country and beyond the national borders,
devotees came to kneel before the mother of heaven. The presence of the
Virgin Mary, in the dedication of Our Lady of Suyapa, was felt and vibrated in
the hearts of the believers who came to venerate her.

On the main altar of the temple, the small but miraculous image,
6.5 centimeters high, dressed in its best clothes. Ella, the most beautiful
Morenita in Honduras, wanted to present herself to her children as she is:
the sovereign, the bearer of faith and intercessor of all graces before
Jesus Christ. Message of faith .

With this great celebration, the power of convocation attributed to the

Virgin of Suyapa was evident. Each of the people who approach her abode is
moved by certain purposes: direct prayers of gratitude, seek her holy protection,
pay promises or simply visit her to contemplate her beauty.

. Both the sanctuary and the hermitage were insufficient to receive the
faithful, some waited in the surrounding area for their turn to participate in
one of the 10 Eucharists celebrated yesterday in honor of the Virgin's
birthday.

https://quijotediscipulo.wordpress.com/2013/06/08/sintesis-de-la-historia-de-la-iglesia-
catolica-en-honduras/