'The sacred bones are already venerated'. The relics in the church of the Society of Jesus of Tunja (1613-1820)

Abstract

This article addresses the role of the Society of Jesus in the spread of Paleo-Christian martyrs relics in the Hispanic world, according to the Council of Trent. The arrival of the relics to the New World coincides with the foundation of new Jesuit colleges that privilege the thaumaturgic use of relics and their role in the extirpation of idolatry. In the New Kingdom of Granada, the relics brought by the Jesuits from the Roman catacombs, in the second decade of the 17th century, procession in Santafe and Tunja in a baroque feast sacralizing the space of the temples of the Society of Jesus in the two cities and reinforcing its urban prestige in the Catholic monarchy. In Tunja, in the second half of the 18th century, after the expulsion of the Jesuits, the relics began a long period of deterioration until they disappeared after the Wars of Independence.