Christ of the Blisters in Merida Cathedral

A Crucifix from a Tree of Light

This Black Christ, known as the Holy Christ of the Blisters, represents a traditional devotion which began in the village of Ichmul, Yucatan, in the first half of the 17^th century, and it is still a deeply venerated image today. 

According to the Cordemex Maya Dictionary, Ichmul means “between hills”, from ich between, and mul, a mound or hill.

The statue which can be seen in Merida Cathedral, in a chapel at the east end of the north nave, is not the 17^th-century original, which was lost during the night of the 24^th of September 1915, under the revolutionary governor General Salvador Alvarado, when the great church was stormed and the interior ransacked. 

In her article, Church and Social Control in Yucatan. The Cult of the Christ of the Blisters, the historian Genny M. Negroe Sierra writes that during the attack, the intention was to burn the statue, but since this proved impossible, it was transferred to military headquarters, never to be heard of again.

The actual crucifix is a replica, made in Queretaro on the initiative of Archbishop Martín Trischler y Córdova, and financed by Rafael Quintero, an entrepreneur. It was placed in the restored chapel on the 24^th of September 1919, four years to the day after the destruction wrought in the interior of the Cathedral.

The cult to the Christ of the Blisters has deep significance, dating back to the first half of the 17^th century. According to legend, it was in 1603 that the inhabitants of Ichmul, a village 172 kilometers (107 miles) southeast of Merida, saw a tree burning but not being consumed by the flames. The local priest ordered the tree cut down and brought to the sacristy, so that a statue of the Virgin Mary could be carved from it. 

A few days later, a young stranger arrived in the village, seeking work as a sculptor. The priest hired him, whereupon the mystery artist asked that no one interrupt him while he was creating, and locked himself in to start work. In a single day he was finished, but immediately disappeared.

The priest entered the room and found the completed statue, only it was a crucifix, and it was suspended vertically in the air, with no support. From then on, the populace revered it immensely. 

Some years later, in the 1630s, a fire destroyed the church and everything in it, except the crucifix which had been blackened by the flames, and covered in swollen marks like blisters. As a result, it was thenceforth known as the Christ of the Blisters, and the cult increased. 

On the 3^rd of May 1645, the image was taken to Merida. It remained in the convent of the Conceptionist nuns, and on the 16^th of May it was transferred to the Cathedral.

Devotion increased in the city: the inhabitants created celebrations and religious groups to organize them, and the chapel we see today was built, at the expense of a pious worshipper named Lucas Villamil. In the second half of the 19^th century religious guilds representing various trades and social groups were formed to do reverence to the image.

The most captivating features of this beautiful replica are the precise depiction of the dying Christ, his eyes open, looking down on the spectator; and the beauty of the Cross itself. It is displayed in its chapel, and can be visited any day of the week, when the Cathedral is open.

The festival of the Holy Christ of the Blisters is celebrated each year from the 14^th of September to the 17^th of October. Guilds established in honor of the image participate in religious activities, and also organize their own popular festivities.

The revolutionary movement in the Yucatan Peninsula, and the violent outpourings of anti-religious feeling that it engendered constitute one of the most significant historical events linked to this revered image.

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