Saint of the Day: Martyrdom in Paraguay

Three Catholic priests who joined the Jesuit missions in 16th century Paraguay met their doom in 1628 at the hands of native Americans in what is now the South American republic.

The three Jesuit priests: Roque Gonzalez de Santa Cruz, Alonzo Rodriguez and Juan de Castillo, joined the missions called 'Reductions' since it was there that the missionaries 'reduced' or converted the locals to the Catholic religion. Part of the story of these Jesuit missions is depicted in the film The Mission.

The Reductions were settlements of native Americans run by the missionaries not as conquerors but as guardians and trustees of the native people. The Jesuits' opposition to Spanish and Portuguese colonization, slave traders, and the Inquisition led to frictions in the 18th century with ecclesial and state authorities. The Pope of the time, persuaded by arguments on the part of the monarchs of Spain and Portugal, would eventually disband the Jesuit order, while the Reductions were abandoned to the jungle.  

Roque Gonzalez was born in Asuncion in what is now Paraguay in 1576 to an aristocratic family. He was ordained in 1599 at the age of 22 and later named vicar general of the Jesuits there in 1609. For the rest of his life he worked in the Reductions, first in that of St Ignatius, then later founding six more to the east of the Parana and Uruguay rivers. In the course of his work he suffered extreme hunger, exhaustion and insect bites. These discomforts he said were more than offset by the love and friendship of the Indian people.

In 1620 he was joined by Alonzo Rodriguez and Juan del Castillo and established a new mission near the Ijuhu river. The trio was killed by a hostile forces between the 15 and 17 of November, 1628.

Evidence concerning their work and the manner of their deaths was collected at the time, but then lost for more than 200 years. It was not until the 1930s that the cause for the beatification began. Beatified in 1938, they were finally canonized in 1988. Gonzalez de Santa Cruz is considered the founder of two cities: Posadas, in Argentina, and Encarnacion, in Paraguay. In Argentina, their feast is celebrated on November 15 while in Paraguay it is celebrated on November 17. Some of the remains of the destroyed Reductions are to be found in the Argentine province of Misiones, bordering Paraguay.