Buzzy's Country Store

Church Matters

Posted on by J. Scott Ridgell

In  looking through more of Buzzy’s various keepsakes I came upon this postcard.  (Make note of the fountain in the foreground as I will be mentioning it again.)

 On the back side of the card he had written this:

Iglesia de la Merced  (Church of Mercy) is located in Antigua, Guatemala.  Buzzy made a trip there in 1990 as part of the Global Volunteers group an organization of folks who travel the world volunteering to help out others.  (For a related post I did on this in March 2010 (click here.)

While in Guatemala each member of the group took a turn writing a daily journal of their activities.  Here is what I found for that Sunday the 25th of March as a lady named Laura recorded the following:

      “On Sunday we all went off in different directions to make

Note Laura’s mentioning the Church of San Francisco which is is located on the other side of Antigua from the church that Buzzy attended.  As you can see here,  Antigua has over a  dozen Catholic churches.  I’ve hilighted Buzzy’s and Laura’s:

There is an interesting connection between these two churches in that an earthquake in 1773 destroyed Church San Francisco leaving it in ruins.  (Also leaves one to wonder what IS it about things named San Francisco and earthquakes?!)  Subsequently, the fountain that was in Church San Francisco was relocated to the courtyard of the Church of Mercy where it resides today (shown above.)  

Another little bit of useless trivia for you: in 1935 a couple of Tarzan movies were filmed in Guatemala with several scenes shot in the the ruins of the San Francisco Church.  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iglesia_de_San_Francisco,_Antigua_Guatemala
Eventually the Church San Francisco was rebuilt in 1967 but many of the ruins that Laura referred to above still remain.   I found this movie trailer on Youtube where you can see some of the Church ruins. 

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Church Matters

Posted on by J. Scott Ridgell

In  looking through more of Buzzy’s various keepsakes I came upon this postcard.  (Make note of the fountain in the foreground as I will be mentioning it again.)

 On the back side of the card he had written this:

Iglesia de la Merced  (Church of Mercy) is located in Antigua, Guatemala.  Buzzy made a trip there in 1990 as part of the Global Volunteers group an organization of folks who travel the world volunteering to help out others.  (For a related post I did on this in March 2010 (click here.)

While in Guatemala each member of the group took a turn writing a daily journal of their activities.  Here is what I found for that Sunday the 25th of March as a lady named Laura recorded the following:

      “On Sunday we all went off in different directions to make

Note Laura’s mentioning the Church of San Francisco which is is located on the other side of Antigua from the church that Buzzy attended.  As you can see here,  Antigua has over a  dozen Catholic churches.  I’ve hilighted Buzzy’s and Laura’s:

There is an interesting connection between these two churches in that an earthquake in 1773 destroyed Church San Francisco leaving it in ruins.  (Also leaves one to wonder what IS it about things named San Francisco and earthquakes?!)  Subsequently, the fountain that was in Church San Francisco was relocated to the courtyard of the Church of Mercy where it resides today (shown above.)  

Another little bit of useless trivia for you: in 1935 a couple of Tarzan movies were filmed in Guatemala with several scenes shot in the the ruins of the San Francisco Church.  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iglesia_de_San_Francisco,_Antigua_Guatemala
Eventually the Church San Francisco was rebuilt in 1967 but many of the ruins that Laura referred to above still remain.   I found this movie trailer on Youtube where you can see some of the Church ruins. 

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