José Servando Teresa de Mier y Noriega y Guerra (1765-1827), also known as “fray Servando” or “Padre Mier”, was a Mexican ecclesiastic, philosopher, writer and politician. A good part of his texts were related to the independence process of Mexico from Spanish rule..
His writings were mainly sermons and speeches related to the Catholic faith, and the political and social situation in his country. His gift of speech put his life in trouble on several occasions, as happened in 1794, after questioning, during a sermon, the apparitions of the Virgin Mary..
Fray Servando was a man of strong and determined convictions. During his life he faced various vicissitudes, was imprisoned, and for a long period he lived in exile from his homeland. However, his actions left an indelible mark on the political and social history of Mexico..
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Servando Teresa was born on October 18, 1765 in Monterrey, Nuevo León, coming from a wealthy family. His parents were Joaquín de Mier y Noriega, politician and governor of Monterrey, and Antonia Guerra, a descendant of the first Spaniards who arrived in Monterrey..
Servando Teresa de Mier's first years of education were spent in his native Monterrey. Later, in 1780, when he was fifteen years old, he went to Mexico City to study at the convent of the Dominican Order, more than out of conviction, to please his family.
Shortly after he began to study philosophy at a school that belonged to the same Order, called Regina Porta Coeli. Once he became a priest, he began studying theology at the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico, where he obtained the degree in 1792, at the age of twenty-seven..
In a very short time Servando became known for his ability to deliver sermons and speeches. In 1794 he made a memorable sermon in honor of Hernán Cortés; However, the speech that aroused the most attention was the one he gave on December 12 of that same year about the Virgin of Guadalupe..
After the celebration of the 263 years of the appearance of the Virgin, and in the presence of Spanish representatives, the priest expressed that it was not something that was owed to Spain. Fray Servando made it clear that the adoration of Guadalupe was of pre-Hispanic origin and not brought to Mexico by the conquerors.
Fray Servando's sermon brought him harsh consequences, as Archbishop Alonso Núñez de Haro, who was present, quickly ordered his arrest. He was taken to jail on charges of disloyalty and denial, and was also excommunicated. His family and friends turned their backs on him.
For Archbishop Núñez, two months in prison were not enough punishment, much less served the apologies offered by Servando de Mier. So he made the decision to sentence him to exile, without even holding a trial. Although the fray asked for justice, the sentence was fulminating.
The sentence imposed on Fray Servando was banishment from his homeland for ten years. On June 7, 1795 he left Veracruz for Spain. He had to remain confined in a convent, under the prohibition of teaching or preaching. In addition to all that, they prevented him from confessing and his doctor degree was taken away..
Fray Servando knew that an injustice had been committed against him. So he escaped from the cells of the Caldas convent. His attempt was unsuccessful, as he was recaptured, and transferred to the San Francisco convent, with the advantage of having more freedom.
Determined to be free, he took his case to the Council of the Indies, and although the members of the Inquisition found no offense in his sermon, Archbishop Nuñez interfered against him. Faced with the situation, in 1801, he escaped to France, and after a time he settled in Paris.
Servando de Mier took advantage of his stay in Paris to create a Spanish language school, in the company of a Venezuelan, the teacher Simón Rodríguez. In addition, he translated some works, especially Atala, by François de Chateaubriand.
It was a time of great benefit for the priest. He met several intellectuals and politicians, including Luca Alamán, who later participated in the creation of a political party in Mexico. Alejandro Humboldt was also part of his contacts.
After leaving the Dominican Order in 1802, he returned to Spain. His freedom did not last long, because he was sent to jail for being in favor of the cause of Independence of Mexico. He managed to escape in 1804, but was arrested again.
After three years in prison, Fray Servando was under the orders of the Pope, for having managed to get some rabbis to join the Catholic religion. In 1808, after having been in Lisbon, he joined the Valencia Volunteers militia, which led him to fight in several battles.
Towards the end of the first decade of 1800, Servando de Mier escaped from the French in Zaragoza. Then, thanks to the favors of General Joaquin Blake, he joined the Seville board. Some time later he became part of the Society of Rational Knights.
After traveling through various cities in Spain, he joined several sessions of the Cortes de Cádiz. Soon after he went to England, specifically the capital, and began to write for the newspaper The Spanish, in favor of the freedom of the American nations from the Spanish.
During the constituent Cortes of Cádiz, Servando de Mier was reunited with Lucas Alamán, who incorporated him into the American side. In that process he met the Mexican politician Miguel Ramos Arizpe, with whom he formed a team in favor of the Spanish colonies in America..
Although the participation of both Mexicans was important, due to their abilities to negotiate and express themselves, they did not succeed in getting members of the Cortes to benefit the nations of New Spain. This is how he realized that it was necessary for America to be independent..
On May 15, 1816, Servando de Mier set out on an expedition through New Spain, along with the Spanish Xavier Mina, both arriving in Baltimore. There they related to the Hispanic revolutionaries, and then they made a tour of several North American cities.
In 1817 they both arrived in Soto la Marina, in Tamaulipas, Mexico. There Mier was apprehended by the Spanish. When he was in the jail of the inquisition of the Mexican capital, he was able to write his Memories. Also this time he managed to escape, and was in Philadelphia until 1821.
Servando de Mier returned to Mexico after the independence feat, entering by Veracruz, in 1822. But with luck against him, the Spaniards arrested him and imprisoned him in the castle of San Juan de Ulúa. He was released after three months.
Once free, he served as a deputy in the Congress of Mexico, for his native state, Nuevo León. It was the time when the Mexican military Agustín de Iturbide tried to become emperor, but de Mier became his main opponent.
The fact that Servando de Mier strongly opposed the creation of an empire in his country by the dictator Agustín Iturbide, brought him serious consequences. The military man gave the order to make him prisoner, but he was finally able to escape on January 1, 1823.
Servando de Mier was part of the Constituent Congress of Mexico. For this reason, on December 13, 1823, it issued the historic Discourse of the prophecies. In this speech, he stated, among other things, that he was in agreement with federalism, but controlled, without the states having full sovereignty..
Servando Teresa de Mier's life was not easy, but she always knew how to stand firm in her ideas and convictions. During his last years, he lived a good time in the presidential palace, thanks to the invitation made by Guadalupe Victoria, the first constitutional president of Mexico..
Three days before his death, de Mier had given a kind of feast, as if he sensed his departure. While at the celebration, he decided to say a few words about his life and adventures. He died on December 3, 1827, in Mexico City, and his remains were buried in the Santo Domingo convent..
Some historians and scholars have agreed that thirty-four years after his death, in 1861, Mier's body was found mummified. Later, along with other mummies, it was exhibited. In addition, it was argued that an Italian bought them some time later.
For a long time, it has been argued that his remains are missing. However, some claim that they would be in one of the many temples in San Pedro Cholula, in Puebla. The only thing for sure is that Servando Teresa de Mier played an important role in the history of Mexico..
Although Servando Teresa de Mier was a writer of sermons and speeches, his style and qualities for the letters were perceptible. The language he used was concise, clear and direct, and almost always severe against those he considered to be acting in bad faith.
His writings were a reflection of his personality. They were characterized by being intelligent, captivating and scathing, complemented with sarcasm and ironies. Mier's verb and lyrics were full of expressiveness, energy and strength.
Servando Teresa de Mier, in addition to writing and delivering sermons of a religious nature, also focused on political and social issues. He wrote against Spanish rule over America, the formation of an empire in Mexico, and the forms of structuring some nations.
After being elected deputy to the second Constituent Congress, Servando de Mier proposed, after his speech of December 13, 1823, the establishment of a moderate Federal Republic. However, such an idea was separated from a federation like the United States..
Although Mier was not entirely in agreement with a federal government, he was not a centralist either. However, before the different demonstrations in the interior of the country or provinces, it accepted that Mexico was a federal state, but without giving the cities total autonomy and sovereignty..
Another of his contributions was related to the need that every government had to serve the people, better and better, even if that meant contradicting what the citizens really wanted. For Servando de Mier, the interests of a country should not obey the whims of a minority.
- Letters from an American to Spanish (1811).
- History of the New Spain Revolution (1813).
- Apology and relationship and occurred in Europe until October 1805 (1817).
- Farewell letter to Mexicans (1820).
- Political question: Can New Spain be free? (1820).
- Idea of the Constitution (1820).
- Instructive political memory (1821).
- Of the prophecies (1823). Speech.
- Apology and relationships of his life with the title of Memories (Posthumous edition, 1917).
- Memories. A Mexican friar exiled in Europe (Posthumous edition, 2006)
In this work, Mier presented his thoughts and ideas on freedom. The special claim of independence for his native Mexico with respect to Spanish rule stands out. These correspondences were addressed to the historian Juan Bautista Muñoz and to José María Blanco White, a journalist from Seville.
In those letters he let it be known that the Cadiz constitution was not beneficial to the American people because its laws were inapplicable. For Mier, the Spanish were equal to the Americans, and he also expressed that Mexican politicians had the capacity to govern their nation.
He considered that the Spanish were only interested in the wealth of the colonized countries. He also made reference in some letters to the independence of Venezuela, in relation to some articles that White published in the newspaper The Patriotic.
"... Do not be careful, then, for America: there is no better academy for the people than a revolution.
Yes, they will understand, they will understand the declaration of the rights of the people, that slavish imitation of the declaration of the rights of man that shakes you for having been from the national assembly, and applied in so many different circumstances..
I would say that the Venezuelans have restored to America a work of theirs, which produced such excellent effects in the United States, where the circumstances were the same as theirs ".
It was a testimonial type work, in which Mier related to the readers the different events that occurred in Cádiz, and in America with the establishment of New Spain. In addition, he made a criticism of the supposed advantages that the Spanish gave to the American countries.
“What will this barbarian do where he believes he is authorized by justice to display the strength of his character? Desolation ... they march before him against wretched Indians armed with sticks and stones; and if despair, as in the past, revolts them in passing the fatal comet, says the viceroy, who is going to stir over peoples ... "
- “(…) The image of Our Lady is a painting from the early first century of the church, but as well as its conservation, its brush is superior to all human industry, as the Virgin Mary herself was naturally stamped on the canvas living on mortal flesh ".
- “(…) I confess, they are strange and unheard of, but they seem very probable to me; and at least if I am mistaken, I will have excited the laziness of my countrymen so that by trying it on, I better clarify the truth of this story ".
- "I don't know who gets the military to punish monastic apostasies".
- “(…) It will be said to me, do you want us to become a central republic? No. I have always been for the federation, but a reasonable and moderate federation ... ".
- “Wanting from the first trial of freedom, going back to the top of social perfection, is the madness of a child trying to become a perfect man in one day. We will be exhausted in the effort, we will succumb under an unequal load to our forces ".
- “It takes courage, says a wise politician, to deny an entire people; but sometimes it is necessary to go against his will to serve him better ... ".
- "(…) The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was already very famous and adored by the Aztec Indians who were Christians, on the flat top of this Sierra del Tenayuca (…)".
- "I will show that the history of Guadalupe includes and contains the history of ancient Tonantzin, with her hair and wool, which has not been noticed because its history is scattered in the writers of Mexican antiquities".
- "Guadalupe is not painted on Juan Diego's tilma, but on the cloak of Santo Tomé (known to the Indians as Quetzacoalt) and an apostle of this kingdom ...".
- “Catch me already in a foreign kingdom without clothes, without money, without titles, without briefs, without knowledge and without arbitration. Here begins hunger and trouble and new jobs. But freedom more precious than gold, makes them more tolerable "
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