Tancoyol is a Huasteco name that means "coyote", and it has nothing to do with the meaning of this cover that has the cross as its main theme.
Tancoyol is a Huasteco name that means "coyote", and it has nothing to do with the meaning of this cover that has the cross as its main theme. The cross —which here crowns the center of the facade—, as the redemption of the human race. Christ has died - with his death on the cross - for all. In the upper medallions, the cross of Calatrava and that of Jerusalem are also sculpted. In the frame of the cover, six angels hold the symbols of the Passion: the cross and the mallet, the ladder, the whip, the cloth with the Holy Face, the column, the flagellant hand, the spear.
Above the skylight surrounded by the Franciscan cordon, the scene of the stigmatization of Saint Francis. And below him, two angels hold the curtains that protect a niche - now empty - where the Virgin was, in her invocation of Our Lady of Light. On the arch of the door, the two Franciscan shields. On each side, Saint Peter and Saint Paul, to whom they correspond —in the second body— Saint Anne with the Virgin Girl and Saint Joaquin; and in the third, San Roque and San Antonio. In short, the Sacrifice, the Cross, Christ united with Mary, who is the Supplicant Omnipotence; plus their procession of saints that they spread with their life and example. And all in the middle of a very baroque and beautiful ornamentation.
Fathers Antonio Paterna, Ramos de Lora, Saenz de Inestrilla, Miguel de Molina, Antonio Cruzado and Fray Junípero Serra himself served in Tancoyol.
