San Juan Sacatepéquez () is a city, with a population of 155,965 (2018 census)Citypopulation.de
Population of the major cities in Guatemala making it the eighth largest in Guatemala, and a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the Guatemala department of

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

, northwest of

Guatemala City Guatemala City (, also known colloquially by the nickname Guate), is the Capital city, national capital and largest city of the Guatemala, Republic of Guatemala. It is also the Municipalities of Guatemala, municipal capital of the Guatemala Depa ...

. The city is known for flower-growing and wooden furniture.

History

Doctrine of Order of Preachers

After the conquest, the Spanish crown focused on the Catholic evangelism of the natives. Settlements founded by royal missionaries in the New World were called "Indian doctrines" or simply "

doctrine Doctrine (from , meaning 'teaching, instruction') is a codification (law), codification of beliefs or a body of teacher, teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the essence of teachings in a given branch of knowledge or in a ...

s". Originally, friars had only temporary missions: teach the Catholic faith to the natives, and then transfer the settlements to secular parishes, just like ones that existed in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

at the time; the friars were supposed to teach

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

and

Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

to the natives. When the natives were ready, they could start living in parishes and contribute with mandatory tithing, just as people in Spain did. But this plan never materialized, mainly because the Spanish crown lost control of the regular orders as soon as their friars set course to America. Shielded by their apostolic privileges granted to convert natives into Catholicism, the missionaries only responded to their order's local authorities, and never to that of the Spanish government or the secular bishops. The orders' local authorities, in turn, only dealt with their own order and not with the Spanish crown. Once a doctrine had been established, it protected its own economic interests, even against those of the King and thus, the doctrines became Indian towns that remains unaltered for the remainder of the Spanish colonial period. The doctrines were founded at the friars' discretion, given that they were completely at liberty to settle communities provided the main purpose was eventually to transfer it as a secular parish which would be tithing of the bishop. In reality, what happened was that the doctrines grew uncontrollably and were never transferred to any secular parish; they formed around the locality of the monastery and from there, they would go out to preach to settlements that belong to the doctrine and were called "annexes", "visits" or "visit towns". Therefore, the doctrines had three main characteristics: # they were independent from external controls (both ecclesiastical and civilian ) # were run by a group of friars # had a relatively larger number of annexes. The main characteristic of the doctrines was that they were run by a group of friars, because it made sure that the community system would continue without any issue when one of the members died. In 1638, the Order of Preachers split their large doctrines, which meant large economic benefits for them, in groups centred around each one of their six monasteries, and the San Juan Sacatepéquez doctrine was moved under the

Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala ("St. James of the Knights of Guatemala") was the name given to the capital city of the Spanish colonial Captaincy General of Guatemala in Central America. It is located in present-day Antigua Guatemala. H ...

monastery jurisdiction:

In 1754, the Order of Preachers had to give away all of its doctrines and curatos to the

secular clergy In Christianity, the term secular clergy refers to deacons and priests who are not monastics or otherwise members of religious life. Secular priests (sometimes known as diocesan priests) are priests who commit themselves to a certain geograph ...

, as part of the

Enlightened absolutism Enlightened absolutism, also called enlightened despotism, refers to the conduct and policies of European absolute monarchs during the 18th and early 19th centuries who were influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment, espousing them to enhanc ...

sponsored by the Spanish Monarch Carlos III.

Climate

San Juan Sacatepéquez has temperate climate (

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

: ''Csb'').

Geographic location

Notes and references

References

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:San Juan Sacatepequez Municipalities of the Guatemala Department