Obras Pías

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Obras Pías

Obras Pías, charitable foundations for the support of hospitals, convents, missions, and schools, as well as chaplaincies, which were established during the colonial period and continued through the first part of the nineteenth century. Other usages of the term include provisions in wills for perpetual masses established for the repose of the souls of the dead and members of his or her family. These became obras pías when the church established the mechanism whereby the funds could be invested in agriculture, urban real estate, or trade. Dowries for all brides, religious or secular, might also be characterized as obras pías. The idea derives ultimately from the conception of charity embodied in the Judeo-Christian tradition. The Council of Trent (1545–1563) established procedures for these charitable foundations. The wording of the documents of donation indicates that donors believed such deeds could release one's own soul and that of members of one's family from purgatory. Wills reflected additional aspects of obras pías, sometimes making it difficult to differentiate between voluntary donations and those that were so widespread as to be characterized as taxation, such as the almost universal provision in testaments in New Spain for the beatification of Gregorio López.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

John Leddy Phelan, The Hispanization of the Philippines (1959).

Michael P. Costeloe, Church Wealth in Mexico: A Study of the "Juzgado de Capellanías" in the Archbishopric of Mexico: 1800–1856 (1967).

John Frederick Schwaller, The Origins of Church Wealth in Mexico (1985).

Additional Bibliography

Ludlow, Leonor, and Jorge Silva Riquer. Los negocios y las ganancias de la colonia al México moderno. México: Instituto de Investigaciones Dr. José María Luis Mora: Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas-UNAM, 1993.

Martínez de Sánchez, Ana María. Cofradías y obras pías en Córdoba del Tucumán. Córdoba: Editorial de la Universidad Católica de Córdoba, EDUCC, 2006.

Martínez López-Cano, María del Pilar, Gisela von Wobeser, and Juan Guillermo Muñoz Correa. Cofradías, capellanías y obras pías en la América colonial. México, D.F.: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1998.

                                          Edith Couturier