Beaterios
Nevertheless, Spanish soldiers and colonists kept coming because of the
riches to be gained and the fertility of the land. By the beginning of the 18th
century they had established a solid foothold in Guanajuato and San Miguel was a
thriving commercial center surrounded by large cattle ranches. The mission of the Congregation of Saint
Philip Neri (Filipenses) at the Oratory at Colegio de San Francisco
de Sales
was thriving and the Oratorians arranged through a local banker, Don
Xavier Alvarez, to acquire a large parcel of land near the site of the former Sanctuary of Guadalupe to build a church and beaterio dedicated to Santo Domingo de Guzmán in 1750. "Senor
Alvarez wisely set up a legal plan whereby his family would retain ownership of
the property, while the Dominican Sisters would have the use of it in
perpetuity. This arrangement guaranteed that if the Mexican government were to
confiscate the property, it would have to be returned to the Alvarez family,
who in turn would give it back to the Church.” Dominican Friars were assigned from the province of Santiago to direct the beatas on their spiritual retreats, and the Oratorian Padre Luis
Felipe Neri de Alfaro established another beaterio a short distance away at the
Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno in Atotonilco where he offered retreats based upon the Spiritual
Exercises of Saint Ignatius Loyola. It was he who began the tradition still honored today of a Holy Week procession from San Miguel to Atotonilco.
