It was Hatún-Cañar, the Cañarí metropolis that occupied the current territories of this small canton whose name was maintained even after the Spanish settled in it and erected it as a Parish under the name of San Antonio del Hatún-Cañar, in honor of San Antonio de Padua, as its first parish priests and ecclesiastical administrators were Franciscans.
Located at 3,140 m.s.n.m., It has spaces that seem to show a defiant attitude to the indolent effects of time, with a majestic variety of elevations led by the Buerán (Fire Shrine) whose height reaches 3,806 meters above sea level; followed by a no less imposing Molobog (Molo-Mullo/round hill), with 3,490 msnm; or, a Huayrapungo (gate of the winds), whose height reaches 3,163 masl
The ancient legend about its origin ties, curiouslywith the scenario of the great universal deluge narrated by the “Ledger”, possibly showing itself as the only “ethnicity indigenous cultural“of America, which maintains among its traditions this universal recounted by the Old Testament, adding, a deep-rooted belief about the existence of the soul –animism-.
Referred to as the “Capital of the Wheat Fields“, maintains –just like the darling Belen, Ba Lejm, Beithlehem, Bayt Lahm, House of Bread-, extensive areas covered with the gentle and ancient wheat subtly cradled by fertile black earth, between hills and houses made of adobe, bajareque and tile, with squares and narrow streets discreetly misaligned and hidden in the mist, like a harmonious meeting point between earth and sky .
It was this courageous and ancient “human conglomerate” that was the first to accept the teachings “Catholic Christians” brought from the old continent, materializing, including, the publication of the first catechisms in Spanish sugarcane after, in 1583, the First Diocesan Synod ordered these publications in mother tongue Kañari; request executed by the Presbyter Gabriel de Minoya.
THE FACTS
One Tuesday June 24, 1958 when, exposed the “Santísimo” in the small Chapel of San Antonio –2 kilometers from the cantonal center– suddenly became sensitive to the eyes and gaze of the people “A LIVING AND RADIANT CHRIST IN THE WHITE OF THE CONSECRATED HOST” (¡… Living Bread…!).
A Christ Jesus with a sad and overwhelmed face, which showed fine lines of blood caused by a grotesque crown of thorns or tears that descended on his pale cheeks until ending up intertwined with a slight gesticulation of the lips that revealed a sensitive Jesus trying not to fall into tears A … CHRIST LIVES …! whose long hair was kept slightly agitated by the breeze of the wind.
The events that took place between June 24 and 30, 1958, also made it possible to observe a sudden illumination of the Monstrance caused by intense multicolored lights emitted from the lower part of the Pyx, which, intertwining from top to bottom, caused an overflowing glow that intertwined astonishment. and admiration, with anguish, panic and despair, when initially thinking a fire had broken out.
Some cried, others prayed, others sang or shouted. The dominant impression was fear and fear. The skepticism and mistrust that was part of the scenario led to the search for natural causes or tricks; many inquire, search, find nothing and believe.
In the Mother Church where the Custody was moved, a fleshy and bloody heart was observed in this same “Consecrated Host” which, after transforming into sacramental red, enlarged until it took the shape of a bomb, which sequentially expanded and compressed. After returning to its normal state, the image of JESUS becomes sensitive again.
SKEPTICISM
Among the skeptics is the parish priest Father Cesar Manuel Andrade Ochoa. Demanded, doubtful and even annoying, he goes to the Chapel meditating on the way to reassure people. Located in front of the Custody, he investigates reflections, crystals, mirrors, paintings. Exhausted and overwhelmed, he falls to his knees asking for forgiveness and wishing for death.
Before the Ecclesiastical Court he would say: “…I clearly contemplated the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The half body of him, his divine face tilted slightly to the right… A gentle breeze moved the hair on the sloping part of the Lord’s face…”.
When the news spread, it provoked a massive turnout that would group around ten thousand people. They declare in the canonical process: Isabel Palacios de León, Lola Noboa Arizaga, Dr. Darío Machuca Palacios, Rosa Martínez de Gárate, Rafael María Amoroso, Dr. Bolívar Andrade Ormaza, Tarquino Padrón Molina, Laura Semería vida. de Pozo, Dr. Marco Antonio Toral Vega, Delia Guaraca de Calderón, Luis Enrique Molina, Ludgarda Guerra de Medina, Sister Inmaculada Amoroso Bernal, José Salvador Sánchez, Mélida Torres Ochoa, Jesús Cevallos Torres, Inés Becerra de Cevallos, Mélida Cevallos de Mejía , Dr. Miguel Neira Solis; and, Dr. Ezequiel Clavijo.
From a group of students and teachers from the “Santa Marianita de Jesús” School who went to the place, three students who witnessed the miracle entered religious life as they narrate today.
JURIDICAL-CANONICAL PROCESS
On July 3, 1958, a CANONICAL-LEGAL PROCESSwhich lasts three years. Proceedings are carried out such as inspection on site, statement of one hundred and twenty witnesses -dozens more are rejected-; expertise: chemical, physical and psychological, the latter seeking to establish or rule out suggestive causes that would have led to confusion, distortion or deception. The Order of Initiation, ordered absolute reservation of the “Custody”, prohibiting the dissemination of the facts by any means, including the Pastoral, under penalty of excommunication.
The physical expertise sought to establish the existence of causes that had caused distortion or deception, prioritizing technical concepts immersed in the physical optics u geometric opticseither by reflection, or by projection, to confirm or rule out some projection by means of ultraviolet rays o by reflection from the glass of the Monstrance that could have served as a mirror, to reflect a painting or print.
Sought to rule out or confirm projection through videos or other similar mechanisms, even more so when the innumerable witnesses claimed to have seen a “Christ alive and moving. It was concluded that the images seen, both in the Chapel and the Mother Church, could not be explained as effects of physical or natural causes.
Spaces for oversight and participation were offered to feelings of skepticism, disbelief or doubt. One of the experts was Dr. Sven Aage Bestle, who, professing the Protestant religion, was skeptical of the veracity of the facts.
THE SENTENCE OF THE CANONICS -CAN. 1868-
The Ecclesiastical Court to the case framed in the Canonical norm –Pio-Benedictine of 1917–after exhausting all the necessary diligence, ended up capturing the Archiepiscopal Decree of April 5, 1961, through which Monsignor Manuel de Jesús Serrano Abad, Archbishop of Cuenca, declared the event as “HISTORICALLY TRUE AND NOT EXPLICABLE BY ORDINARY CAUSES AND NATURAL”.
THE “BASILICA OF THE HOLY FACE OF THE EUCHARIST”
The end of a miracle is not enclosed in the physical order, but in the moral and religious. (Vatican Council, Const. on faith cath. Can. 4.). It is an event that challenges man at the bottom of his existence and calls him to a dialogue with “GOD”. Monsignor Serrano Abad already expressed: “…a miracle without reasons is absurd, it is to think thoughts of ignorance, to make of the sublimity of religion a vain and trivial fraud…”.
Should we perhaps seek, individually and/or collectively, the designs of this Miracle to cement profound conceptions framed in the moral, religious and social order, so run down in recent decades.
Now will be the time to undertake the first initiatives that allow the construction of the “BASILICA OF THE HOLY FACE OF THE EUCHARIST”, like that of the “National Vote”, o monumental “Virgin of the Bun”, Promoted and raised in Quito, by the priests Jesús Rigoberto Correa Vásquez and Julio María Matovelle, natives of Cañar and Cuenca, respectively.
It corresponds to the current generations of Cañar and Austro to be their executors or it will be necessary to wait another six decades for the coming ones to do so, confirming that for “GOD” TIME DOESN’T GO SLOW OR FAST.