Abstract

This article analyses the material economy of the Franciscan College of propaganda fide of San Ildefonso de Chillán during the second half of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. It focuses on the economic conditions from monetary and material perspectives, in relation to the corporal and spiritual sustenance of friars and missionaries. Our objective is to study the concept of poverty practised by Chillán misssionaries during a time of economic changes in the Kingdom of Chile. We have consulted documentation from the repositories of the Propaganda Fide Archives in Rome, the General Archive of the Indies, the National Historical Archive in in Madrid, and the Franciscan archives in Santiago de Compostela and Santiago de Chile, which enabled us to unveil the material reality of the Chillán Mission College during the transitional period from the 18th to the 19th century. Methodologically speaking, we contrasted the ideal of poverty established in its Rules and Statutes, which rigorously guided the conduct of the friars, and the daily reality of their lives as illustrated by their letters and reports. This documentation reveals not only their prosperous material living conditions, but also their questioning of poverty, and the guilt that sometimes accompanied the latter. Disputes over land, money and property in general existed, aside from the provisions of its Rule and Statutes.