Land of the Mayas

[first lines]

Narrator:
Peacefully reclining in the picturesque highlands of Guatemala lies the little town of Chichicastenango, one of the most colorful and interesting villages in all of Central America, it being the center of a region inhabited by almost 50,000 Indians, descendants of a once highly-civilized people known as Mayas, who inhabited this land about 2,000 years ago. The colorful and imposing archway which forms the main entrance to Chichicastenango, however, owes its construction to the genius of the white man. For the ancient Mayas, with all their proverbial architectural skill, never discovered the principle of the arch.

[last lines]

Narrator:
And now it is time for Padre Rossbach to set forth on one of his regular missions to administer to the souls and bodies of the sick and needy who cannot com to him in Chichicastenango. In spite of his 70 years, he has been known to rise in the cold of darkest night and travel even on foot if need be, over mountains and through streams, in order to bear to some dying Indian the last rites of the Church. And so it is that this solitary white man, now nearing the end of his long and lonesome life, continues to practice and teach Catholicism to a flock of semipagans, many of whom have become his devout followers, even though they may still be confused about the true meaning of the faith, which has so admirably sustained Padre Rossbach, the living saint of Chichicastenango.