Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Long-time priest treasured in Tomé

Clara Garcia News-Bulletin Staff Writer; cgarcia@news-bulletin.com

Tomé In one of the oldest communities in Valencia County is a church that not only is a symbol of hundreds of years of faithful devotion, but that has been the center for the community for thousands of families.

Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Tomé is more than 300 years old. The town of Tomé was established for the second time in 1739, said Ramon Torres, who was born and raised in Tome and is lifelong member of the church. He said he hopes to die and be buried in the community that his family has been part of for the last 10 generations.

He said Tomé was established in 1650 by Thome y Dominguez de Mendoza. Thomé is short for Tomas, Torres said. Mendoza became governor of New Mexico for about six months and got in some sort of trouble, so they sent him to Tomé to make sure that the new Spanish settlers weren't taking advantage of the Indians and that the Indians were behaving themselves.

Thome Mendoza's hacienda was built at the base of Tomé Hill, and he lived in the area for about 35 years. In 1680, he left right before the Pueblo Revolt.

"He was either liked by the Indians and was notified ahead of time about the revolt or he got wind of it and split," Torres said. "He landed up moving to El Paso."

After the revolt, the land was re-granted to 28 families of Hispanicized Indians on July 30, 1739. The Tomé Land Grant spanned from the Rio Grande to the center of the Manzano Mountains and from Tomé Hill to Bernardo.

Tomé Hill has played many vital roles in the community, not just as a place thousands of the faithful climb each year on Good Friday. Torres explained that those who lived in the area would use the rock they brought down from the hill to build foundations for their homes.

"They also used the rock from the hill to make headstones for the dead," Torres said.

A bell that can be dated back to 1863 and is now displayed just south of the church was purchased by Father Jean Baptiste Ralliere, the long-serving French priest of Immaculate Conception.

"When you have a bell, you always had padrinos for the bell," Torres said. "Padrinos were the godparents of the bell, and they would either donate the money for the bell or be in charge of collecting the money for buying the bell.

"Bells were very important to the community because we had no clocks or forms of communication," he explained. "The bells were the form of communication. The bell rang whether Mass was starting or someone died or if there was trouble coming."

On the old bell are several names that have been scratched out, Torres said. Most likely, the names of the parishioners were chiseled off by altar boys with direction from the priest.

"If you got in trouble by the church, the priest had a lot of power in those days," Torres said. "If you got in a bad fight with a priest in those days, you better watch out and you're branded for life."

Ralliere had come to be the priest at Immaculate Conception at the young age of 23 when the parish belonged to an archdiocese in Mexico. When it changed hands to the Archdiocese in Santa Fe, Archbishop Lamy had a hard time controlling his priests, who Torres said had been from Mexico and Spain.

The French priest went back to France and brought back six brand new deacons to Santa Fe and placed them in strategic parishes in New Mexico, including Ralliere, who was later ordained and remained at Immaculate Conception for 55 years. He first came to the church in 1858, retired in 1913 and died in 1915. He was buried under the church's altar.

"He was probably the most instrumental person to this community," Torres explained. "He brought in a printing press, he brought in cabinet making and a blacksmith shop."

Not only did Ralliere become superintendent of schools, he wrote five music books and was the largest wine maker in the valley. Ralliere's love of music influenced him to have three separate choirs, one for women, another for men and a third only for the children of the church.

He brought five organs from back east, Torres said, but historians can only account for the whereabouts of one right now.

In the more than five decades that Ralliere was the pastor at Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Tomé, which has been placed on the state's historical registry, he made many friends, but also went through a myriad of hard times as well.

The church property had always been part of the Tomé Land Grant, but Father Ralliere had bought some private land next to the church. In 1909, some of the bishops coming from back east were sharing stories about how difficult it was for them to obtain lands and deed and documentation for their churches.

"The bishop in charge at that time asked the priests to start getting documentations," Torres said. "The Tomé Land Grant still had possession of the property, and Father Ralliere went to the board of directors and asks for the property for the archdiocese."

Torres said the board, all of whom Ralliere had baptized, confirmed and married, convinced the priest that it was a done deal and they would give the property to the church. But when one man started questioning the transaction, the board changed its mind.

Father Ralliere became so upset with the board's decision that he took the blessed sacraments from the tabernacle to his personal home, which was about 100 yards from the church.

"The next Sunday, parishioners came to the church only to find a note on the door saying the church was closed," Torres said. "It remained closed for two months."

Torres said the women of the church started a petition to force the board to give the church property to the archdiocese. While the church was deeded to the diocese, they refused to give them the cemetery property.

In one of Ralliere's orchards grew a very unique tree that he brought from France. The tree produced branches of thorns, which the priest would give to parishioners on Good Friday. As the story goes, strong believers thought that a touch of these thorns could cure various ailments.

"The tree still exists," Torres said. "It's unknown if it's the same tree, but it is completely covered in thorns. I had read about the tree and heard about it for years, and I finally found the tree."

Ralliere also founded an orphanage during his time in Tomé. Out of all the children who lived at the orphanage, only one boy got the priest's name - Andres Ralliere, a Navajo.

One of the other orphans whom Ralliere raised had traveled to Tomé from El Paso in a long caravan riding on a large ram when he was 10 years old. Torres said that boy's great-grandson, who still lives in Tome, owns the property where the tree still grows.

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