Ticos dream of a privileged place in heaven

By Hubert Solano

To die in peace with God was the most fervent desire of Costa Ricans during the colonial period. But being buried inside a church was the climax of this sublime dream. Such a privilege meant to be on a par with the Eternal Father, forever and beyond the final Judgment Day.

According to the laws of the Spanish Kingdom, cemeteries were located around the Catholic churches. Later, when there was no more space left in the tombs, the pantheons moved to the outskirts of the cities for public health reasons. During those times, privileged parishioners were still buried within the church itself.

All this is stated in a research study, carried out by Carmela Velázquez, who has a master’s degree in Central American history, which was published by the Center for Historic Investigations of Central America of the University Costa Rica.

According to a study, inhabitants of Cartago then the colonial capital of Costa Rica, in the 17th century, were extremely concerned about specifying in their testaments where to be buried. No matter their sex, age, marital or economic status, Costa Ricans wanted to be laid to rest in one of the two main Cartago churches or in the church of Barva, in the north of Heredia at that time.

In 1611, an Indian named Gerónima was buried inside a church, after her drunken husband had beaten her to death. With a typical Christian aspiration, she had asked to be buried inside the church, so she would be closer to God and able to share a privileged space with the most important inhabitants of the province.

Another Indian, Catalina Tuia, asked for being buried in the church of Curridabat in 1658.

The study also revealed that 151 people asked for being buried in the Parochial Church of Cartago and 53 more asked for being buried in that city’s San Francisco Convent.

As a consequence of the burials that took place inside the churches, the families of the dead would take possession over the part of the land where the tomb was located.

This is why a person’s last will and testament might say: “The tomb I have in such and such a church also belongs to my descendants.” Thus possession became hereditary and perpetual part of the family lineage.

It was very important to know where exactly inside the church a body would be buried. One of the favorite places for these tombs was underneath the pulpit. The main altar was reserved for priests and civil authorities of pronounced religious faith.

In 1699, Fr. Agustín Torres, the oldest priest of the Cartago Parish Church, asked for being laid to rest under the altar of the Virgin El Carmen. The altar of Saint Nicholas was asked for by María Rodríguez in 1654.

There were other special places, too, like under the holy water font and on the Rosario altar in Cartago Parish Church.

From 1638 and beyond, more people began to buried near the above entioned font. In that year, the priest Miguel de Arguedas also was buried there. In 1698 Alonso de Berrocal, from Panama, was put there, and the following year Miguel de Ichazo, from Quito, was also laid to rest at the same place. Both of them apparently were merchants passing through Costa Rica.

In 1691, Alonso Mora solicited the San Francisco Convent in Cartago as a burial place, warning everyone that if he should die in the town of Nuestra Señora de la Concepción de Pacaca, he should be buried there.

Even though other cemeteries existed in Cartago, located in the outskirts of the city. That is why those of Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, San Juan and San Nicolas weren’t among the most sought after buriel sites.

All of this reveals that the majority of the people preferred being laid to rest in a church and not in a cemetery.

The most curious thing though, is that Costa Ricans wanted to be buried inside the church in order to stay connected with the world of the living. Mass were held daily at church, therefore it was frequently visited. “This permitted the dead to be present among the living and defy oblivion,” reads the study.

Carmela Velázquez says that in this way “they also lessened the solitude of death,” since “the space offered by the church permitted the living and the dead to remain closer to each other, and why not, without interrupting the social gatherings they began during life...”