Condemning the brutalities of the Nationalists, Burleigh nonetheless exonerates the great bulk of the Spanish clergy, most of
whom were apolitical and who dedicated their lives to the poor.
And so it
is, to a large extent, with the other saints» cults as well, a point vividly illustrated in the testimony of several of the children of Sanchez, for
whom the Lord of Chalma (another cult, centered about sixty miles southwest of Mexico City)
was the focus of their spiritual life.48 Even when the cult
is community oriented — as in the case of agricultural saints — it remains largely
apolitical.