Votive Object Physical Object


Accession Number
1986.008.0001b
Alternate object names
Milagros;Spoon, Miniature
Creation Date
1622
Description
Small vermeil charms in the form of a spoon, fork, and ewer (a type of pitcher) come from the Atocha. The spoon has a loop on the back, as if it were meant to be stitched or otherwise attached to something else, and this loop may indicate the purpose for all. In some Spanish and Spanish colonial religious traditions, miniature representations of objects, figures, and body parts were given as votive objects. These milagros or exvotos were attached to altars, shrines, or the garments of religious figurines found within places of worship. Milagros were given as acts of devotion or with the hope of their aiding in the answer of a prayer.

Thousands of milagros of various shapes and sizes were offered by the faithful annually. From time to time, a priest would collect them and have them melted down to support the church that had received them. More offerings would soon take their places.
Exhibition Label
Case Caption (2023):

RELIGIOUS DEVOTIONS

Spain’s empire was won by conquest and the Spanish believed that their laws, leaders, and the Roman Catholic religion were superior to Indigenous customs, rulers, and spiritual practices.

Priests came to provide emigrants with spiritual support but also to convert Indigenous people. They hastened conversions by asserting that Jesus and the Virgin Mary were bigger, better manifestations of local gods. The Virgin Mary was quickly identified with Pachamama, the goddess of the earth. In 1532, the church that became Lima Cathedral was built on top of a major shrine to Inti, the Inca sun god and the palace of an Inca prince. The Spanish used this suppressive strategy successfully throughout their colonies.
Object Caption (2023):

Milagros
Silver (c.1600)
Gift of Jamestown Inc.
1986.008.0001a-c

Milagros are religious offerings that people attached to a statue of a saint to ask for help. When the statue got overloaded, the resident cleric would collect the silver and use it to support the church.