Flagellation, Inc.

As the Penitentes of the southwestern U.S. began their famed, secretive Holy Week ceremonies, they added a new form of mortification to the lashes, thorns and vigils with which they traditionally atone for sin. The new humiliation: a lawsuit, the first in Penitente history. It threatened to bring some of the closest Penitente secrets out of the windowless adobe moradas ("purple houses") into the daylight of a civil court in Old Las Vegas, N.M.

The original fraternidad, which became a legal corporation in 1902, charged that an upstart group, incorporated in February, was guilty of "fraud and deceit" in calling itself the Concilio Originate and was unfairly competing with the older Penitentes' monopoly on organized self-punishment.

The Penitentes, a lay society of obscure medieval origin, are found from Texas to California among the Spanish-speaking Catholics. During the Golden Age of New Mexican flagellation (1850-90), the Penitentes' zeal bred scandalous tales of actual crucifixions, often fatal, among members. In 1889 the Catholic archbishop of Santa Fe banned the cult as barbaric. It now enjoys clerical toleration. Weakened but persistent, the Penitentes retreated to remote villages, continued their Holy Week rites, but stood by with carbines to ward off nosy gringos who were baffled but fascinated by the twin Spanish traits: a passionate sense of sin and a flair for cruelty.

That the Penitentes are also American was disclosed last week as the coming courtroom battle exposed the origins of the quarrel: the new, upstart moradas had been founded by Democrats; the older fraternidad was dominated by Republicans. Though each Penitente scourges only himself, many a Penitente evidently felt that his flesh could best be chastised under a two-party system.

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