Some of the treasures of the history of the Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine of the Order of Augustinian Recollects and the environments and spaces where it has carried out its work throughout history and today.
This mission in Costa Rica derived its name from the river that irrigates it, situated in a region with a tropical climate and luxuriant vegetation. It has always been an area exceptionally rustic and agricultural, initially with coffee and later with vast haciendas of banana plantations owned by multinational corporations. Everything in the region, including the population centres and transportation networks, was designed exclusively to meet the needs of these banana plantations.
The Provincial Chapter of 1976 sought the acceptance of a new mission territory; meanwhile, the bishop of Alajuela recognized the need to minister to the growing demands of the Sarapiquí region. From 1977 until 1995, when the Diocese of Ciudad Quesada was established, between six to nine religious members of the Province worked there permanently.
Sarapiquí comprised four non-homogeneous parishes belonging to the tenth canton of the Province of Heredia: Puerto Viejo, Venecia, San Miguel, and Río Frío. San Miguel was the commercial capital of the region with 18 towns and 12,000 inhabitants, 2,500 of whom resided in the urban centre. However, the political and administrative centre was in Puerto Viejo, the most extensive parish and with the poorest infrastructure for reaching even the towns and communities.
Río Frío originated from an estate of banana plantations established in 1969 following the clearing of hectares of tropical humid rainforests. In a very short time, the population reached 15,000. The industry eventually improved the road, placing the area just over an hour from San José, the nation’s capital, thus breaking the centuries-old isolation.
The social situation presented the most significant challenge for the evangelization task: family breakdown; abuse, exploitation, and lack of women’s rights; alcoholism, structural poverty, insecure employment, and dependency on the vast global fortunes of major multinationals in productive schemes; abandonment of the elderly; uncontrolled immigration; encroachment of lands and landlordism; a large transient population arising from seasonal employment; proximity to the border with Nicaragua, a frequently unstable country…
Sarapiquí was incorporated into the Diocese of Ciudad Quesada, created in 1995, whose first bishop was the Augustinian Recollect Ángel San Casimiro. The Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine maintains a community in this diocese, within the former mission of Puerto Viejo.
