Atotonilco and the end of a wonderful trip

Month over...oh well, but we boogied on till the end.  I could not go home without visiting the Sanctuary of Atotonilco one more time. Atotonilco translates as "place of the hot waters"..there are  hot springs nearby.  My sister was with me for this last week and we got Daniel, our wonderful guide and friend to run us out. Situated 15 km outside  the city, it shares World Heritage Site  status  with the historic center of San Miguel.  It dates from the early 18th Century and  is in the small  dusty community of Atotonilco.(500-700 people) The Atotonilco Sanctuary has  plain  high  fortress like walls.  Astonishing art is the hallmark of its interior.The ghostly walls are  completely covered in murals of personages and scenes from the Bible, without much overall structure in how these images were placed. There is very little empty space. The mural work was done by one man over  a thirty year span,and the style is Flemish which was known through Belgian prints that were brought over from Europe by the  Spaniards.  The church has been called the Sistine chapel of America.
Atotonilco has been a pilgrimage site since  the colonial period and still functions as a religious retreat for people who come from all over Mexico for prayer,penance and mortification.(I don't think there is flagellation any more though)  all this is extremely private and the facilities behind the church can house up to  5000 people.  There are nuns there who run the establishment and prepare the meals etc....it is all very simple but funnily they have a large tortilla factory  adjoining which churns out enough tortillas to feed the large numbers of retreatants.
One of the most venerated items in the church is the miraculous statue of Our Lord of The Column. Several miracles have been attributed to this statue of a bloody Christ leaning heavily on a gilded pedestal. Every year, at the beginning of Holy Week celebrations, the statue is carried in a solemn midnight procession from Atotonilco to San Miguel de Allende. The statue will remain in San Miguel until Holy Week observances are finished.
The torchlit procession is one of the most fascinating celebrations in a season of glorious processions and observances.

And so to the packing and one more trip to the main square for the last mole ice cream cone before my  bus  ride to Mexico City and an early flight home!!