Brothers of Light, Brothers of Blood

Brothers of Light, Brothers of Blood: The Penitentes of the American Southwest is the first book-length, fully documented study since Dorothy Woodward's 1935 Yale University dissertation. Using newly available sources and contemporary materials from the late 1960s and early 1970s, Marta Weigle shows the Brotherhood's substantial contributions--through acts of charity, supervision of wakes and funerals, and religious observances--to community survival and welfare in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado through the mid-twentieth century. Brothers adapted orthodox forms of Roman Catholic worship into vital, significant religious and social expressions that consecrated and confirmed communal ties and provided setting for personal religious experience. Weigle explores the early history of the Brotherhood, theories about its origins and its ongoing relationship to historical and ecclesiastical developments in New Mexico. Her detailed study of the Brothers' membership, organization, activities, and religious rituals is an invaluable resource for students of religious and Southwest history and will also fascinate the general reader. On April 24, 1976, Marta Weigle received an Award of Honor from the Cultural Properties Review Committee, State of New Mexico, for Brothers of Light, Brothers of Blood: The Penitentes of the Southwest. Later that year the book was awarded Honorable Mention in the annual University of Chicago Folklore Prize competition.