By Heliodoro Leon Cerna
The procession of silence is a ritual with more than 55 years of tradition in Patzcuaro that is celebrated during Holy Week on Easter Saturday. It is carried out to commemorate the passion and death of Jesus Christ by an act
of mourning.
It is carried out by the Hooded Brotherhood of the Lord of the Third Order of the temple of St. Francis of Assisi and was born in Pátzcuaro in 1964, with Father Juan Camacho as the assigned guardian. On this first occasion some hooded brothers came out in tunics lent by the Franciscan friars.
From then on, the structure and formation of this group of hooded men was organized more concretely until they had their own statutes and rules for the consolidation of the group and the proper organization and realization of this procession of silence. It is worth mentioning that the brotherhood is formed exclusively by men who go in the procession completely barefoot, doing personal and interior penance in a private way because they are hooded, but at the same time in a collective way as a brotherhood and in a public way because they walk the streets in procession.
Before the procession, a spiritual retreat of intense preparation is held. The procession begins by leaving the temple of San Francisco, going through the different streets of the city downtown to conclude at the starting point. Currently 140 members of the brotherhood of hooded men and a large number of members of the other groups that are part of the rectory of San Francisco participate.
The colors of the tunics mean penitence and they have an order that distinguishes them in the following way. The purple tunic with grey hood represents the newly arrived hooded men, the purple tunic with purple hood is for the hooded men who have been in the brotherhood for two to ten years, the black tunic with black hood and golden signs is for the hooded men who have been in the brotherhood for more than ten years, who become part of the knights of the third order. The clothing has a cord tied at the waist and a lantern with a lit candle that represents the light of Christ in the daily walk as a penitent. In recent years six brown hooded men have joined the procession in recognition of the first hooded men.
This coming Holy Week 2020 the brotherhood will be 56 years old and hereby gives the most infinite thanks to the Franciscan Fathers in charge of the rectory of St. Francis. The author personally thanks the member of the brotherhood for his valuable collaboration in the realization of this article.
Translated by Liliana Rodríguez González
