“ In the Footsteps of Our Elders ”: Franciscan Missionary Lore and Collective Identity and Memory in Colonial and Nineteenth-Century Mexico

Abstract The essay explores Franciscan missionary lore in colonial and nineteenth-century Mexico, focusing on the interplay between ordinary and extraordinary events as narrated by missionaries. It challenges traditional views that prioritize chronicles and hagiographies by underscoring the significance of more succinct, episodic writings which also played a role in fostering communal identity and institutional memory. These shorter narratives, while inward-facing and didactic, reveal how Franciscans navigated the boundary between the anticipated and the unexpected, transforming everyday occurrences and remarkable incidents into a tapestry of missionary lore that reinforced both solidarity among friars and the legitimacy of their evangelical mission. By aligning with broader historiographical perspectives emphasizing the role of narrative in shaping religious identity and institutional memory, the essay contributes to understanding how Franciscans actively crafted a narrative universe in which the miraculous, the pedagogical, and the communal intertwined. The essay demonstrates how the construction of Franciscan missionary lore was not just about recounting remarkable miracles or heroic sacrifices but about cultivating a sense of belonging and continuity through the ritualized retelling of everyday and exceptional events. This approach invites further scholarly engagement with Franciscan texts and encourages a reevaluation of how religious communities negotiated memory, identity, and authority through storytelling.