A strategy towards the reforms of the religious orders in New Spain: the novitiate of the Dominican convent of Nuestra Señora de la Piedad, 1686-1709

Abstract

This article analyzes the brief existence of the novitiate of the convent of Nuestra Señora de la Piedad, which the Dominicans of the province of Santiago de México established between 1687 and 1709. First, the main characteristics of the novitiates established by this corporation are pointed out, and second, the particularities of the convent of Nuestra Señora de la Piedad. Subsequently, it is explained how the new novitiate was a strategy of the friars to have an alternative place of preparation for their new vocations towards the reforms of the population of their convents undertaken by the Crown and the Dominican authorities at the end of the seventeenth century. For all these reasons, the selection of the establishment that housed it and its foundation were exceptional concerning the other novitiates of the province. Finally, the form and period in which it was in operation are studied, which allows us to conclude that the Dominicans considered it a provisional institution that, once they complied with those reforms, they had no interest in preserving.