VIII. Makes Sabbath-Sunday Issue the Heart of Conflict

The treatise, The Gospel That Is Presented Before the Nation by the Citizen Francisco Ramos Mexia, was published by him in 1820 at the height of the wave of reform that was sweeping over the nation. Shortly before this the citizenry had called his brother Idelfonso Ramos Mexia into the turbulent swirl of affairs at Buenos Aires to act as governor. But Don Francisco’s own mission at the peak of his reformatory career (writing in the calm atmosphere on his ranches) was, according to his own declaration, designed to enunciate certain basic principles in the midst of disturbing elements which recognized neither laws of reason nor of order—and all of this in the very storm center of the church—and—state struggle over independence and ecclesiastical reforms. ^{47Ricci, En la penumbra de la historia, pp. 15-25.}PFF4 934.1

1. GREAT CONTROVERSY CENTERS ON SABBATH

In this classic treatise Ramos Mexia sums up the struggle of all creation from the days of Adam onward, as between unbelieving men, given to idolatry and paganism, and believers in the mediation of Jesus Christ through His blood and sacrifice. Sunday, he boldly declared, was the iniquitous symbol of the former, and the seventh-day Sabbath, the holy emblem of the latter—the sign between—believing men and their Creator. Ramos Mexia contrasted the order of Abel, who believed in the true Passover (and whose blood cried out to the Creator from the earth), with that of Cain—or, like the men who carried on their unholy traffic in the Temple. Then he adds:PFF4 934.2

“Casting out from it the memory of Sunday the seventh, ^{48Ramos Mexia apparently was having to contend with the argument that the week started on Monday and ended on Sunday as the seventh day, while he argued that the question involved “restoring the delicate original law of the Sabbath,” which, according to the Bible, was the seventh day of the week.} and restoring the delightful law of the Sabbath [Sabado], that of the will of the Creator.” ^{49Ibid., p. 26 (p. 12 of Ramos Mexia’s The Gospel).}PFF4 935.1

2. AUTHORITIES OPPOSE His SABBATH OBSERVANCE

Professor Ricci in his thirty-five-page monograph, titled Francisco Ramos Mexia: Un heterodoxo argentino como hombre de genioy como precursor (an Argentine heterodox as a man of genius and a forerunner), declares that “our patriot was also a sabatista [Sabbathkeeper].” ^{50Ibid., p. 31.} Ricci likewise cites another document concerning Ramos Mexia, found in the general archives of the Argentine Republic, stating that on December 11, 1821, the ecclesiastical authorities united with the political leadership to force Ramos Mexia “to abstain from promoting practices contrary to those of the land,” for it had been found that “the sanctification of the Sabbath had been introduced in that district.”PFF4 935.2

3. SABBATH OBSERVED IN VARIOUS LOCALITIES

In Appendixes II to VI a series of notations on Ramos Mexia appear showing certain legal exemptions in 1814, and in 1821 at Kaquel, and reporting serious developments, “scandalously” working “against the religion” by the Indians established on Ramos Mexia’s ranch and ordering him to appear in Buenos Aires within six days. ^{51Ricci, Francisco Ramos Mexia y el Padre Lacunza, pp. 24-27.} That he was arrested is attested by the periodical El Centinela (The Sentinel) of September 8, 1822, and ordered to cease observance of the Sabbath.PFF4 935.3

In February, 1821, the commandant of Kaquel himself informed the government that, fearing another invasion of Indians, he had recovered the war material assembled at the house of Ramos Mexia. And in Appendix VI, in December, 1821, the general vicar of the bishopric informs the minister of government that investigation had established the fact of this “Jewish observance” [“sanctification of the Sabbath”]. Consequently measures are requested to permit the “extirpation” of this evil.” ^{52Ibid., pp. 27-30.}PFF4 935.4

The Sabbath, it should be added, was kept not only on the Ramos Mexia estate at Miraflores, near Kaquel-Huincul, but by groups on his farm near Buenos Aires, known as Los Tapialas, also south of the river Salado, and on the estate of the Patria. He had established six chairs, or professorships, of theology in the South, evidently in and around Miraflores, and at the Indian camp Ailla-Mahuida (New Hills), also known as Llamoida. So the observance of the Sabbath was quite widespread.PFF4 936.1