Ancient podia for sermons
Some pulpits remain in certain churches, as silent witnesses to the countless homilies delivered from them. Those that survive today were built in the 17th and 18th centuries, usually if wood, but sometimes of stone, and although they are no longer used for preaching, they still display the craftsmanship of their manufacture and the symbolism of their carvings.
In the parish church of St. Francis of Assisi in Oxkutzcab, completed at the end of the 17th century, we find one of the loveliest pulpits in Yucatan. It is finely carved of wood, white with gilded edges. The concave surface is adorned with medallions containing reliefs of the four evangelists.
The pulpit probably dates from the first half of the 18th century. It is on the south side of the church, attached to a column which also supports the magnificent canopy shaped like a great crown, while the base is decorated with cherubim.
In the monastery church of St. John the Baptist in Motul, concluded in the mid-17th century, there is a beautiful and important wooden pulpit, constructed in the second half of the 17th century, although stylistically the aesthetic belongs more to the 16th century, according to Elisa Vargas Lugo in her article The Pulpit in Motul Church.
It is octagonal, comprises a base, rostrum and canopy, and is made of red cedar. On the sides are carvings of Franciscan and Dominican saints, with caryatids between them. The pulpit was restored in 2019 by a specialist, Fernando Garcés Fierros. In 2023 it was further repaired by experts from the INAH Yucatan.
The church at Abalá has a surviving wooden pulpit with a curved rostrum similar to that of Oxkutzcab, except that the exterior is totally plain, without painted iullustrations.
The base features small rectangular carvings, and above them the symbols of the four evangelists: a ox head for St. Luke, a lion representing St. Mark, an Angel for St. Matthew, and an eagle denoting St. John. Eight-petaled flowers finish the base of the pulpit, which does not have a canopy.
In Umán, the 18th-century church of St. Francis of Assisi is home to an interesting wooden pulpit, also 18th-entury. It is octagonal, with six bas-relief carvings on the rostrum. Four of these depict the evangelists, each holding an open book in his left hand, while making an explanatory gesture with his right.
On the base of the pulpit, underneath each of the gospel-writers, is his symbol: an eagle, an angel, an ox and a lion.
The parish church attached to the ex-monastery of St. Barnabas and St Bernardino, constructed in the 18th century in the village of Teya, has a pulpit almost halfway down the nave which can be accessed via a staircase built inside the walls of the edifice. Pulpits made in this way do not have bases, since the rostrum is attached to the church wall, giving the impression that they float in the air.
The pulpit does not have a canopy, and the panels have wooden medallions with relief carvings of various religious scenes.
In Maxcanú, the monastery parish church of St. Michael Archangel, built in the early 17th century, has an interesting and beautiful wooden pulpit, also 17th-century, which shows the handiwork of Mayan woodcarvers. The rostrum is curved, and the canopy shaped like a crown, rather like the pulpit in Oxkutzcab. It has stone pedestal, and a carved wooden column supporting the rostrum and decorated with acanthus-leaf volutes.
There are four symbolic heads carved on the base, representing the evangelists: an ox, an eagle, an angel and a lion, all on a bed of clouds. The underside of the canopy has a sculpture of a dove with its wings spread in flight, representing the Holy Spirit.
The monastery church of St. Francis of Assisi in Conkal, built in the 17th century, houses a wooden pulpit with a curved rostrum adorned with four medallions containing paintings of the evangelists.
The piece is supported by a wooden column standing on a stone base, around which are small carved square geometric figures with rounded edges. Attached to the pulpit is the wooden staircase which provided access for the priest. There is no canopy.
In the gardens of the Yucatan Conciliar Seminary is a rebuilt stone pulpit which was originally in Tepekán church. It was octagonal, and consisted of two rows of panels, larger below and smaller on the top row. Each panel contains a relief carving of an eight-pointed star enclosed in a circle.
The piece was broken, although it is not known how, probably some time between the 1940s and the 1970s. The pieces were retrieved by Father Francisco Montañez Jure and taken to the Seminary, where they were reassembled.
However, the reconstruction of the pulpit is not the same a its original form, as only the lower part was restored. Thus the piece became a closed off octagon, when two of the smaller panels were added. The four remaining small panels were used to create a pedestal for the statue of St. Anthony of Padua.
In his article Church Pulpits of Yucatan, the archaeologist Luis Millet Cámara notes that three other churches: at Mocochá, Suma and Dzemul, villages close to Motul, like Tepakán, have similar stone pulpits, which might indicate “…that the master stonemason who made these pieces was originally from [Motul]”, and that the pulpits were made in the 18th century.
With the exception of the example in the Seminary, the pulpits can be viewed during the times of religious services in their respective churches.
Oxkutzcab is 103 kilometers (64 miles) south of Merida, and the name means “breadnut, tobacco and honey””.
Motul, 41 km (25 miles) northeast of Merida, means “mut bird” in Maya.
Abalá, “the place with water plums”, is 51 km (32 miles) south of Merida.
Umán is 26 km (16 miles) southwest of Merida, and means “their way”.
Teya Pueblo is 67 km (42 miles) northeast of Merida. The name means “place of the sapote”.
The name of Maxcanú, which is 77 km (48 miles) southwest of Merida, means “the beard of the guardian”.
Conkal is 17 km (10.5 miles) north of Merida, and means “the place of the short neck”.
The Concilar Seminary of St. Ildefonso and Our Lady of the Rosary is in the Itzimná district of the city of Merida.