Nice Bell Found at Shipwreck Site...with pictures.

Dear bobadilla;
As far as I am aware, the numeral 19 does not hold any special religious significance within the realm of the Roman Catholic church or any of Her religious Orders. As I was taught, here are the religious numbers associated with the Chruch:

One stands for the oneness of nature in God; also one divine person in Christ; one true Church founded by Christ; and there is one mortal life, one baptism, one death, and after death one judgment before eternity.

Two represents the two distinct natures in Christ, human and divine; the two covenants of God with the human race, the Old and the New; two ultimate kinds of reality, variously called heaven and earth, soul and body, spirit and matter; there are two basic commandments, to love God and one's neighbor as oneself; and the final separation on the Last Day into two groups, the saved and the lost.

Three is the number of persons in the Trinity; Christ spent three in the tomb and rose from the dead on the third day.

Four evangelists wrote the Gospels; the heavenly City of God is perfectly square, with all its dimensions a multiple of four; and there are four cardinal virtues, prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude.

Five wounds in Christ's two hands and feet and his side are still present in his glorified body.

Six were the days of creation, signifying completion and symbolizing the principal attributes of God, namely his power, majesty, wisdom, love, mercy, and justice.

Seven is the symbolic number of charity, grace, and the Holy Spirit. It is the term that stands for perfection. There are seven sacraments, seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, seven deadly sins, seven joys, and seven sorrows of Our Lady.

Eight is associated with joy and the resurrection. There are eight beatitudes, and Christ rose from the grave on the eighth day after his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, symbolized in the octagonal shape of many baptismal fonts.

Nine is the angelic number, since the Bible speaks of the nine choirs of angles. It is also the typical number of prayer, because the first Christian novena was the nine full days that the Disciples stayed in the Upper Room and prayed after Christ's Ascension until Pentecost Sunday.

Ten stands for the Ten Commandments that Christ confirmed for his followers; it is the basic multiple for fullness, and any number multiplied by ten (or tens) is the highest possible.

Eleven has come to mean incompleteness, as typified among the Apostles after the defection of Judas, who had to be replaced before the Day of Pentecost.

Twelve implies maturity or totality. there were Twelve Apostles, corresponding to the Twelve Tribes of Israel; and the Book of Revelation is filled with imagery built around this number. The heavenly Jerusalem will be twelve thousand furlongs on all sides, having twelve jeweled foundations, with twelve gates of twelve pearls. There are twelve fruits of the Holy Spirit.

Thirteen is the symbol of teacher, recalling the presence of the traitor at the Last Supper, beyond Christ and the faithful eleven disciples.

Forty is the biblical number for trial, testing, or waiting. The flood lasted forty days and forty nights; the Israelites wandered forty years in the wilderness; Moses remained forty days on Mount Sinai. After his baptism, Christ was forty days in the desert and there was tempted by the devil. After his Resurrection, he appeared to the disciples for forty days before the Ascension. There are now forty days of Lent, and forty is the symbol of the church Militant.

fifty is related to the fulfillment of a divine promise. In later Jewish history the feast of Pentecost was celebrated on the fiftieth day after the Passover to commemorate the giving of the Law through Moses. And the Holy Spirit promised by the Savior descended on the fiftieth day after Easter.

One hundred is the scriptural number for plentitude, whether used alone or as a multiple for other numbers. Christ spoke of a hundredfold harvest and a hundredfold reward.

One thousand often means simply an immense number, too large to be counted. It has come to symbolize eternity, because all higher numbers are either an addition to a thousand or multiplications of the same. God is the Eternal One in whom there is no time element, for "with the Lord, 'a day' can mean a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day" (II Peter 3:8).



Your friend;
LAMAR
 

Dear Lamar,
Thanks a lot once again for your explanation!

Dear Laura,
Because I live in Santo Domingo, I am going to have a look on the bell in Mercedes church here in the town. I will do some photos and of course, I will share them here with you.

All the best,
Lobo (Bobadilla)
 

Dear bobadilla;
You are quite welcome my friend! As an aside, before I typed my previous reply, I was only able to remember the first 6 numerals, plus two or three others, therefore I had to look it up in the online Catholic dictionary and then copy & paste from there. Embarrassing, but true!
Your friend who needs to hit the books a bit more;
LAMAR
 

Dear Lobo,

I cannot wait to see the photos of Las Mercedes church...
thank you for devoting your time to go over there for us.

Could you light a candle for Lucy, Luis, and their family for me while you are there?

Thank you,

Laura
 

I could not agree more with you Elle, the possibilities are endless for the year 1635. I suspect the real revelations as to where this bell was going to will be found not in the AGI or the AGN in Santo Domingo but in the Archivo Arquidiocesano as there is surely a record of what church(s) needed that bell in that year. If it was my bell, I would hurry down to the Mercedes Church in Santo Domingo and look at the church archives which if they are not physically there, they surely are at the Archivo Arquidiocesano. Of course the bell could have been on its way to Argentina or Paraguay or California but the proximity to Santo Domingo do make that destination the first to look at as to the final destination of the bell.
 

Dear bobadilla;
OK, I was a bit premature in my earlier reply to you. It seems there were 19 Jesuit *units* with some 2,000 odd members in the year 1635AD. At the time of death of St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1556, the Jesuits had expanded into some 1,000 odd members working within 11 units, but this number expanded greatly due to the colonization of the Americas and the Philipines. By the time of the general expulsion there existed some 4,000 odd members in 28 units. This organizational structure is perhaps may be a large part of the reason why the Jesuits soon became known as the *soldiers of Christ* and the Papal *elite troops*, because of their military-like structuring.

Also, I was reminded that there are 19 Pater Nosters (Our Fathers for you non-Latin praying members) in a complete Rosary. Please note that the standard 5 decade Rosary is not a complete Rosary, rather it is a chaplet, or 1/3 of a Rosary. If a Rosary were to recited in full, non-stop from beginning to end, there would be 1 Pater Nosters recited, 3 Ave Marias, 1 Pater Noster, 10 Ave marias, and so on, for a total of 15 decades, followed by another Pater Noster, 3 more Ave Marias, and terminating with 1 more Pater Noster, for a total of 19 Pater Nosters.

Thus far, these are the only two references which I could relate to the numeral 19, however I now know that a traditional cassock has 33 buttons, one for every year of Jesus' time on Earth. It's simply amazing the information you can come up with if you ask the question to the right person!
Your doing it by the numbers friend;
LAMAR
 

Yes, thank you Lubos and everyone else...what a great discussion. I too think we are getting lost on Latin translation a little, there is nothing special about the inscription which would truly tell us anything concrete in my opinion, but I'm learning a lot of things from it. RelicDude also commented early on about the number of stars, Joaquin commented on them, and now Lubos has posed the question as well. I'm still perplexed by the one thing on this bell that I do consider unique....and that is the little half sun above IHS. Could have just been an artistic touch by the caster, but it is the sole example I have seen of this so far. As Joaquin said, this is a very ordinary bell, with a few unique qualities. The unique items are what I believe will get us to the answer. 19 stars, only two steps in the mound below the cross, and the half star above IHS.

Panfilo, I love the bell and want to know its history very much, but I also want to determine which ship it was on, with the bell being my biggest clue so far. The AGI documents mentioned will tell us what ships were travelling along our coast during that time, and which ones did not arrive at their destinations. Our cargo manifest for this ship will likely tell us where the bell was headed, and probably even who it was for. At the end of the day, we are shipwreck explorers and want to know the identity of our ship as well as the bell. That is why we are in the AGI at the moment, plus you guys have the bell covered better than I could ever hope to do it. LOL Thanks!

Has anyone looked into the mission that RelicDude mentioned? I've known him for a while...and he wouldn't make a post like that without a good reason. Keep 'em coming, this has been educational, inspirational, and exciting. Thanks!

Jason
 

Panfilo...great suggestion.

Lobo...where is your Archivo Arquidiocesano located?

Even though I am 50/50...it is worth checking into this angle.
It is just that I've done much of my own investigations through the Archivo Arquidiocesano of Mexico City for answers to specific questions...and just when I think there could be documentation concerning a major event of the church and its relics...nothing appears.
But you never know...Mexico City was largely established then compared to Hispaniola. Perhaps the Diocese concerning Santo Domingo wrote in more detail.
 

Hello Elle,

Diocese Archive in Santo Domingo is located in the Colonial City, just behind the oldest Cathedral in the New World in Plaza de Colon (Columbus Square) in the building of Archbishop's premises. I already asked there some times ago but nobody, I mean "civilian person, not a priest" is allowed to get permission to go into their archive. Pity.
Regards,
Lobo
 

Jason, I perhaps didn’t make myself clear, my fault. All Catholic religious orders had a very complex documentation system by 1635 and surely the priest at the church where your bell was going to go to must have had permission from the bishop to buy the bell. There are records of this somewhere in the Parochial, Diocesan, Nunciture and Cathedral archives and of course in the Religious Orders Archives, not in the AGI. Parallel to this “religious” investigation you must and apparently are doing you research as to the identification of the wreck, of course in AGI and Simancas and AGN in SD and maybe other archives as well. But I doubt you’ll find anything in reference to the ordering or purchasing of the bell at AGI or such.
 

Jas...I've already taken note of RelicDude's mission chart.
Thank you so much RelicDude!
I plan on going to Loyola University next week to work...so it's on my list.

Off to Six Flags for some rollercoaster fun...even historians need to rest their eyes from reading!

Laura
 

lamar said:
Dear mariner,
Bravo, my friend! It seems someone else paid a bit of attention in Latin classes! I´ve been attempting to explain that the words ANNO DE are not Latin at all, rather they are the antiquated Spanish words for AÑO DE. The NN would be the correct spelling form of the word and the Ñ is the contracted form, however both forms may be used interchangably and still be considered the correct spelling.

The only difference in the Spanish word ANNO and the Latin word is the pronounciation. In Spanish the NN (or Ă‘) is pronounced as an N-Y and in Latin it is prounounced as two separate N sounds.

Also, the words ANNO DE do not necessarily mean (In the) YEAR OF, my friend. In this particular case, the correct Spanish to English literal translation would be FOUNDED IN THE YEAR or ESTABLISHED IN. This would mean, therefore that the mission was established, or built, in 1635, not the year the bell was founded or the year the sailing vessel went awreck. This bell could have been cast at any time after 1635 AD until the time of the Jesuit expulsion in 1767, which will make trying to identify the wreck more difficult.
Your friend.
LAMAR

Lamar,

Just for the record and I really don't wish to get into this, I will respect others opinion on the matter. Mariner was the one who said that anno is Latin...I was the one who said that its a Latin slang that came from Medieval Latin (old Latin) But I will leave that to you guys...Right now I'm more interested in helping my buddy's solve the mystery
 

Jason i was just going off the jesuit chart from 1640.It is so close to the date of the bell and i think the best hope..Like everyone said, the name on the bell is common for the time, and the date is helpful also.But the only thing that is really different from others is the number of suns on it . In fact all the bells have different sun counts on them, and for that there was a reason.. If you go back and study the chart ,it starts at the bottom with ROMA and branches off from there. It shows the main churches for the area and the smaller missions/leaves created by the jesuit. The only one i can read well is california and in 1640 it has only 3 leaves .I looked for the one that had 19 leaves...This is only a guess from me,and nothing to back it up! The chart is the start and the empire they had in 1640
 

Luara, nice work, but I was referring to this post by RelicDude.

RELICDUDE07 said:
Congrats on the banner Jason!!!!Im going to take a guess and say it was for( Maria ChiquitanĂ­a) bolivia 1635... Goodluck at the site :icon_thumleft:

Panfilo, sorry, my post came off a bit snotty after I re-read it....I should never type in a hurry. ::) What I should have said was "both avenues are very important". But I do think the cargo manifest will also tell us lots about the bell if we can identify the ship and find its records. When they unloaded, they had to know where things were to be delivered, and who got what. That could narrow the search you and Laura are undertaking considerably. Don't ever think that I don't fully appreciate your contributions to the discussion, I do very much.

P.S. All you TNET night owls, do yourself a favor and hop up from your computer after midnight and go watch some Persied meteors shoot across the sky, look north east and enjoy them, they are quite beautiful. :icon_thumleft:
 

Guys keep in mind that part of research is creating theories and then start a process of elimination unless you are able to find the exact documentation to proof your theory.

As off right now most of us are thinking that this bell was on its way to a mission or church founded or re-constructed in 1635 BUT, BUT, What if the bell was stolen by the French or it was on its way back to Europe from a mission that was closed or destroyed.

Panfilo is so right when he said we won’t be able to find out more until we see more artifacts of this wreck…In the mean time we can keep on trying to see if any of us as a team can hit the bull’s eye.

Compadre,

I’m sure we will have more than one Corona in your name….I have not seen Jason since the last time we went diving on July 4 2008 so I’m sure we have allot to talk…….Please send our love to Blanquita. Once again thank you for the Plancha….

Guys there is no need to thank me for my help you know that I would do anything to help you guys….Hopefully in the near future I will be there diving with you guys….


All the best,

Chagy…..
 

Awesome thread! This has been the most interesting shipwreck thread since Pegleg and Cornelius were here. :icon_thumleft:

I concur with a few others that the mystery will likely be solved when more artifacts are found. There are too many variables at hand. Jas, when will you guys be diving the site again?
 

As soon as we have a new financial partner. LOL If the weather breaks, I may go do some beach diving just to see if there isn't something laying around that we missed. But we are unfortunately not in a position to mount a full scale excavation at the moment. It shouldn't be long though, and I will be doing everything that I can, still trying to get info on some coins that came off this wreck in the past....that will be a huge clue.

Jason
 

Relic,

My dear friend you absolutely right when conducting an investigation you most look at every angle and every possibility.

The only thing that we know for a fact is the year on the bell and in my humble opinion I’m 99% sure it was made for a Jesuit Mission.

The other thing we know for sure is that a strong hurricane hit the island in 1635.

Another interesting thing is the fact that Las Mercedes was re-constructed in 1635 and a bell tower was added…even more interesting is the fact that one of the bells in Las Mercedes today is from a early 1900s wreck….Why? Perhaps because it was missing a bell that never arrived in 1635?...Not sure yet.

What should we search for? For now…until we have more information of the wreck

*The history of the re-construction of Las Mercedes
* Jesuits that died in a shipwreck in 1635
*Jesuit Missions or Collages that were build or re-constructed in 1635
*Jesuit Missions or Collages that were raid, closed or destroyed after 1635
 

Chagy, if I may disagree with you on just one of your points that are well made: there is no indication that the Jesuits are in anyway connected to this bell. I initially made the same mistake, assuming that the "IHS" anagram used by this order was a clear link. Not so, Franciscans, Dominicans and parochial church bells can and do have this anagram. Let me copy from the experts at Campaners:
El anagrama de JesĂşs, que debieron escribir "IHÎŁ", corresponde a la abreviatura de IHÎŁUÎŁ, y se escribe usualmente como IHS. Otra variante JHS procederĂ­a del latĂ­n, aunque la segunda letra es la Eta o E larga griega. Fue introducido como devociĂłn por San Bernardino de Siena (ver San Bernardino de Siena y el Anagrama de JesĂşs). Su significado es polivalente: para unos es el inicio del nombre de JesĂşs en griego, para otros son las siglas latinas de IESVS HOMO SALVATOR (JESĂšS SALVADOR DEL HOMBRE).

Therefore IHS stands for Jesus, nothing more. No sense going in the wrong track when an expert like Joaquin has told Jason that the Jesuits as such didn't make their own bells nor did they inscribe them with the IHS anagram. Of course the bell could have been going or was a part of a Jesuit mission but nothing found so far or inscribed in the bell denotes this.
 

Dear Panfilo,

I never said it was made by Jesuits..... I said; "in my humble opinion I’m 99% sure it was made for a Jesuit Mission." and that is just my humble opinion it doesnt mean I'm right.....

But its to much coincidence that all the elements in the Jesuit symbol are well represented in the bell…The sun, the 3 nails, the cross and the IHS…if it was only the IHS well OK...but what about the 3 nails?
 

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