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Abstract:
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Spanish monarchs ruled a global empire encompassing millions of colonial subjects for nearly three hundred years . One key factor in the longevity of the Spanish Empire was its skillful integration of elements from an even longer -lasting , centralized Institution - -the Catholic Church . Through a focus on San Felipe de Jesús , a Mexico City -born saint , this dissertation analyzes the pious imperialism of the Spanish Empire in the Catholic missions of Japan , the politics of beatification in Rome and local devotions in Mexico City . Funded by Philip II , Spanish missionaries spread across the Atlantic and then to the Pacific . The mission of Spanish Franciscans in Japan including San Felipe exemplified the orthodox and expansionistic tendencies of this movement . The friars’ uncompromising zeal caused them to reject Japanese society and authority , something which led to their executions in 1597 . Spanish subjects thrilled to the martyrs’ inspiring story and supported their beatification cause . The Spanish king , too , actively promoted new holy figures in Rome for political and pious reasons . During the seventeenth century , more than half of the new beatified or canonized holy figures came from the Spanish Empire , including the Nagasaki martyrs . As each new saint earned a feast in liturgy , worship in Spanish territories began to disseminate not only Catholic values , but also divine favor toward the Spanish Empire and its monarch . The liturgical schedule of colonial Mexico City shows that Spanish Catholicism projected both Church and Empire across the Atlantic . As the Catholic Church had found , cults to saints formed effective imperial ties because they could also attract and adapt . Civic and religious leaders in Mexico City molded the cult to San Felipe to express municipal pride , to assert the city’s place in the Spanish Empire and to commemorate its contributions to Catholicism . Devotions to saints , then , captured the potentially -divisive power of identity to reinforce Empire and Church . Pious imperialism worked well until Bourbon -era reforms distanced the Spanish monarch from the devotional culture in Mexico City and interrupted the mediating power of saints’ cults . The Spanish Empire was less able to withstand shocks like the political instability of the early nineteenth century . |