The temple of San Francisco el Grande It has its origin in 1523 and belongs to the Franciscan order. It is settled in an area of more than two and a half apples, which includes the majestic church, its great two -door plazuela, a chapel in the southern part and the convent. Here there are some stories and legends that make the place more special.
This temple was damaged by the earthquakes of 1874 and 1917. The Church was rebuilt during the second half of the twentieth century, after the Guatemalan State allowed regular orders to have owned in the country again and that the Franciscans return the complex in 1967.
Its facade is imposing, baroque style. “Very despite the depredations, transfers and earthquakes, the Church maintains ancient altarpieces and images,” describes Rafael Álvarez Polanco in his book Antigua, its history, monuments, characters, events and legends. The temple also protects the Remains of the Holy Brother Pedroconsidered the first literacy and first saint of Guatemala.
A kilometer away from this temple, we find the rescue From the tree planted by the Holy Brother Pedro de San José Betancur On March 19, 1657 in the garden of El Calvario, Antigua Guatemala. Its flowers are attributed healing effects of various ailments, so visitors collect them to prepare teas.
The legend of Chano and his chirimía
The late journalist and writer Héctor Gaitán rescued one of the oral traditions that persist in this old temple.
Gaitán described a character remembered as Feliciano Chachavaj, from San Francisco el Grande. “People admired him because he was a different custard (person who touches the chirimía, a cane flute). They said he improvised the notes,” said Gaitán.
This story is approximately the 1950s. Chachavaj played with a friend who had a drum and his purpose was to do it for Jesus and for Brother Pedro. He said he wanted to brighten the atmosphere a little, because Jesus suffered a lot for our bad behavior.
Gaitán also mentions a Spanish friar, Juanico Madrid, who was a friend of the chirimitero and asked him jokingly who only played and did not give sermons.
One day the musician became ill and the friar went to visit him. To cheer him out, he told him that he was waiting for him on Sunday to set the place with his cherime.
In the following early morning, he died. Almost at the same time, “Father Madrid, who did not reconcile the dream, could hear the chirimía. When he went out to the main courtyard, the sound disappeared. A few minutes later, relatives who arrived at the temple announced Feliciano’s death,” Gaitán said.
People said that many people saw him playing his cherime the next Sunday, when in reality at that time they were burning him in a nearby village.
Fray Edwin Alvarado, rector of the Temple of San Francisco el Grande, shares that he had heard this legend and seems an important gesture of the Guatemalan oral tradition.