Welcome Homar,coazon de oro wrote:Hello everyone, I've been busy with my wife who had a fractured spine from a horse fall. I really didn't feel like posting, but here is my opinion as to where much of the confusion lays concerning Jesuits hidden treasures. Jesus used parables in his teachings, such as the parable of hidden treasure Mat. 13:44. When greedy treasure hunters find: Los Tesoros De Las Iglesias De Santa Fe written anywhere, they think they found a lead. It does indeed translate to:The Treasures Of The Churches Of Holy Faith, but does not refer to material treasure. It refers to such things as faith, baptisum, sacraments, etc. When they find: El Tesoro Escondido, written anywhere, they think they hit the jackpot! It does indeed translate to The Hidden Treasure, but does not refer to material treasure. It is La Misa Santa, or Holy Mass where you search in your own heart for the complete treasure which one receives in La Eucarista, or Holy Communion. It is Jesus Christ and eternal life. I hope everyone finds El Tesoro Escondido, now that you know where to look. The churches were adorned with beautiful relics but only the Jesuits were replaced. Homar P. Olivarez
Where to start? Where to start?
Lets start with the obvious. You stated that only the Jesuits were replaced. If that is so, then what happened to all the gold and silver church adornments that are detailed in the writings of so many Jesuit Priests?
We have the written accounts of Fray Junipero Serra DFM (Franciscan). He was appointed by Spain to found the California Missions in 1768. As part of that mission, he was allowed to take the Church Adornments left by the Jesuits and use them in the new California Mission System. He listed all the things he took from the Churches and Missions, and his lists fall FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR short of what the Jesuit Fathers (such as Joseph Och SJ) described. So far, we know that the Franciscans didn't get all the wealth of the Jesuit Missions and Churches.
It has been suggested that after the Jesuit arrests and expulsions, civilians went into the Missions and Churches formerly in Jesuit possession, and stole all the beautiful adornments. That sounds plausible, except for the fact that entries in some Jesuit Fathers journals make that possibility IMPOSSIBLE!
Maybe we should look a bit further back in time. About one year (1767). When the Spanish Troops arrived in the middle of the night to every Jesuit House in Northwestern New Spain (just after midnight on 25-26 June 1767). In Father Joseph Och SJs journal, he describes how the Spanish Soldiers severely questioned he and his majordomo. They were constantly goaded to tell where the treasure was hidden. He describes how the Spanish Soldiers tore up his residence looking for hidden rooms and vaults (even searching the toilets). This tells any right thinking human that all those treasures described by the Jesuit Fathers were gone when the Spanish Soldiers arrested the Jesuits.
To date, NONE of the artifacts described by the Jesuit Fathers has come to light. With that, I firmly believe that the Jesuits hid the bulk of their gold and silver Church Adornments.
Going back to the original post, where we have Father Charles Polzer SJ admitting that it was possible for there to be caches of gold and silver Church Adornments still hidden away in the wilderness. I have a problem with that. The description of some of the adornments makes it virtually impossible for them to have been transported and cached away without being seen and followed. Would they REALLY have transported the two nine hundred pound cast silver railings and enormous cast silver chandelier? Doubtful. More likely, those rather ponderous decorations would have been melted down and cast into more easily manageable silver ingots. Easier to load onto mules and carry into narrow caves/mines. Also, ingots would have been easy to hide while in transport. They would not have drawn the attention that two twenty foot silver banisters and a twelve foot silver chandelier would have done. THAT would have certainly been an attention getter.
As far as your parable contention, YES! Jesus spoke in parables. The Bible is full of parables. The Spanish hid directions to different things in Bible Verses (i.e. Book of Tobit). What is to say the Jesuits did not do the same. It is likely that the Jesuits would NEVER have hidden anything of value and given ANY directions to it encoded in a way the Spanish might understand. After all, you have to remember that the Jesuits were hiding their wealth from Spanish civilians, military, and Royal Representatives. Jesuits were masters of mathematics and encryption.
Here is where things can go flying off into the Land of OZ if we are not careful. Many people have claimed to have broken the Jesuit Treasure Codes, buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut nobody has yet to use their theories and uncovered a Jesuit Treasure Cache. HAHAHA I know of two. One was found with a metal detector (silver), and the other was found after using Mayan Numbers scratched onto a rock as distance measurements and metal detectors for the actual caches (gold). I know of no one who has decrypted a Jesuit Document and had it lead them to a cache. Until that happens, everybody's theory is just as good as everybody else's. Except if they go too far off the deep end.
Best-Mike