San Francisco Solano

There is a small monestary behind a church in Central Lima that is being resotred by a Puerto Rican Franciscan priest. I managed to get a tour of the place (Lima is definitely about who you know, it is normally off limits to the public). In the last 30 years or so 3 different car bombs were set off near the monestary, leaving it in ruins. It´s being painstakingly restoted by the good priest. His work is pretty amazing and it´s really a nice place inside. (He intends to turn it into a retreat center for youth.) Anway, after the bombs he discovered that San Francisco Solano was interred in a small chapel in the monastery. He pulled back a rug, and there was the crypt.

What´s facinating about Francisco Solano is his means of converting the locals. He didn´t speak Quechua, so he listened in to their songs from nearby. After time, he learned to play the tunes on his violin, an instrument totally foreign to the natives.