Autos sacramentales

Autos sacramentales are one-act plays that originated in Spain in the sixteenth century. They were specifically written to be performed in connection with a religious holiday, most commonly the Roman Catholic feast of Corpus Christi. The plays were usually allegorical, and the characters were not human but instead personified virtues, vices, and other concepts. Performed in the streets from the back of specially built wagons, autos sacramentales were part of larger festivals celebrating religious feast days. They grew in popularity and extravagance through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries until they were banned in 1765 because they were thought to have become too secular and caused disrespect of the Catholic sacrament of the Eucharist.

Brief history

Autos sacramentales take their name from auto, the Spanish word for an act or ordinance, and sacramental, meaning "pertaining to a sacrament." To Christians, a sacrament is a ritual that provides an outward sign of grace imparted from God to the person. For Catholics, receiving the sacrament of communion, or Holy Eucharist, represents the presence of Jesus Christ in the appearance of bread and wine.

Corpus Christi, or “the Body of Christ,” is the Catholic feast day celebrating the institution of this sacrament on the night before Christ was crucified. The actual celebration day occurs in April or May, depending on when Easter was celebrated. The first feast of Corpus Christi was celebrated on August 29, 1261. It became a significant feast day in Catholic countries such as Spain, which held elaborate festivals featuring religious processions with priests carrying Eucharist hosts through streets carpeted with greenery.

As early as the thirteenth century, plays were included in these celebrations. However, these were primarily re-enactments of the birth of Christ or other events in his life. Around the early sixteenth century, some playwrights began creating works specifically for the feast day. The first was "El Auto de San Martin" by Gil Vicente, and many others followed. These were very popular and became more involved and elaborate throughout the Golden Age of Spanish theater in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries until they were banned by King Charles III (r. 1759–1788), who said they were disrespectful to the sacrament they purported to honor.

Overview

The one-act autos sacramentales were allegorical or contained a hidden meaning, and they were always religious in nature. Although they were similar to the morality plays common in England around the same time, their focus on the Eucharist and a dramatic portrayal of its significance was unique to the Spanish plays. The Spanish works were also financially supported by the communities in which they were performed and sanctioned by the Catholic Church, which increased their significance to viewers.

Performed on the back of long wagons set up throughout a town specifically for the plays, autos sacramentales became increasingly elaborate in staging and costuming as time went on. This was particularly true of the works of Pedro Calderón de la Barca, known as Calderón. He was considered one of the premier playwrights of the time and was famous for using allegory. His plays featured characters such as Faith, Hope, Sin, and Death and were intended to help the Christians viewing the plays better understand their faith. Other famous sacramentales playwrights included Lope de Vega, who wrote over four hundred plays, and José de Valdivielso. Although banned in 1765, in the twentieth century, poets and artists attempted to modernize and secularize the autos sacramentales genre, applying them to more modern contexts and political issues. Still, contemporary references to autos sacramentales remained mainly in their use in academic research and education.

Bibliography

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Fiore, Robert L. Drama and Ethos: Natural-Law Ethics in Spanish Golden Age Theater. The University Press of Kentucky, 2014. Project MUSE, muse.jhu.edu/pub/185/monograph/chapter/1523406. Accessed 17 Oct. 2024.

Fuentes, Ventura. "Autos Sacramentales." Catholic Answers, www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/autos-sacramentales. Accessed 17 Oct. 2024.

Harter, Hugh A. "What Is an Auto Sacramental?" Staging a Spanish Classic, June 1990, p. 1. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lkh&AN=75500213&site=ehost-live. Accessed 17 Oct. 2024.

Kasten, Carey. The Cultural Politics of Twentieth-century Spanish Theatre: Representing the Auto Sacramental. Bucknell University Press, 2012.

"Pedro Calderon de la Barca." New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia, www.newadvent.org/cathen/03156a.htm. Accessed 17 Oct. 2024.

"Spanish Theatre During the Renaissance." Northern Virginia Community College Theatre Appreciation Online Course, 16 Nov. 2007, novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/spd130et/TheatreAppreciation/spanish.htm. Accessed 17 Oct. 2024.

Ziomek, Henryk. "A History of Spanish Golden Age Drama." University of Kentucky Press, 1984, uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_spanish_literature/21. Accessed 17 Oct. 2024.