Colonial-Era Spanish Religion

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This page in-development provides selected information on the religious practice of colonial-era Spaniards, specifically as regards how it affected daily life and material culture. Below are descriptions of liturgical texts and prayer books in-use during the era, as well as ecclesiastical rules for behavior framed within the Catholic liturgical calendar described on a separate page. More information regarding additional topics and time periods will be presented as time permits.

Liturgy and Prayers / Ecclesiastical Rules

Liturgy and Prayers

The principal liturgy of colonial-era Spanish Catholics was the Mass, which was of course the pre-modern Tridentine Mass after its promulgation by Pope Pius V in 1570, and before that the Roman Missal initially printed in Milan in 1474. Below are some links to digitized missals (all in Latin) that contain the liturgical texts that would likely have been used during Mass in colonial Spanish Florida.

A Spanish language translation from the colonial era is provided below, with extensive commentary:

An English language version from the colonial era is provided for comparison:

Each priest was also obligated to recite a weekly series of prescribed daily prayers from the Roman Breviary, commonly known as the Divine Office, which was also keyed to the liturgical year. Two-volume sets began at Advent (winter) and Trinity Sunday (summer), while four-volume sets added divisions at Quadragesima Sunday (spring) and the first Sunday in September (fall). Below are links to a sampling of digitized breviaries (all in Latin) from the colonial era.

A detailed 17th-century explanation of the breviary and its use is provided in the Spanish language below:

An English language version from the colonial era is provided below for comparison:

In the mid-16th century, during the era of Tristán de Luna y Arellano and Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, everyday Spaniards commonly made use of devotional prayer books dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, or Our Lady. Probate records indicate that even poorer individuals with few possessions owned such books, usually in the Spanish language (Horas en Romance), but sometimes in Latin (Horas en Latin). Digitized examples of these books are linked below for this period.

Later examples of this "Oficio Parvo" or "Little Office" are below.

An English-language version from the colonial era is provided for comparison below:

Perhaps even more common in personal inventories were rosaries and strings of prayer beads, used as guides to prayer. Such beads were commonly made of wood, but were also fashioned from bone, jet, coral, crystal, jasper, amber, silver, and gold. Despite assumptions by many archaeologists, glass beads were not commonly used for rosaries, likely due to their fragility, but were instead most frequently noted as rescates (trade goods).

One of many contempory guides to praying the rosary can be found in the volume below, on folios 227-267.

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Ecclesiastical Rules

Within the context of the broader Catholic liturgical calendar, Spanish Catholics were expected to confirm to specific rules of behavior with respect to behavior and diet.  The information was below was compiled from a variety of sources, but is perhaps best summarized in the two-volume Instituciones del Derecho Canonico Americano, by Justo Donoso (1848-1849), esp. pp. 208-212 and 223-233.

On Sundays and major feast days throughout the year, the following activities were generally prohibited, with exceptions granted under specific circumstances:

In addition, below are the specific rules regarding abstinence from meat, as well as fasting (only one large meal in a day) combined with abstinence:

Abstinence (no meat)

Fasting and Abstinence (only one meal, and no meat)

From the above regulations, the following general dietary rules may be interpreted for colonial-era Spaniards:

General Dietary Rules for Days of the Week

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