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Diego Luis de San Vitores
Diego Luis de San Vitores | |
|---|---|
| Error creating thumbnail: The martyrdom of Father San Vitores in 1672 by Mata'pang and Hurao. | |
| Martyr | |
| Born | November 12, 1627 Burgos,  Spain |
| Died | April 2, 1672 (aged 44) Tumon, Guam |
| Venerated in | Catholic Church |
| Beatified | October 6, 1985 by John Paul II |
| Feast | October 6 |
Diego Luis de San Vitores S.J. (Burgos, Spain, November 12, 1627 – Tumon, Guam, April 2, 1672) was a Spanish Jesuit missionary who founded the first Catholic church on the Island of Guam. He was responsible for establishing the Spanish presence in the Mariana Islands. His birth name was Diego Jerónimo de San Vitores y Alonso de Maluendo, at the Church of San Gil.
Biography
Born in Burgos, he was the son of a venerated nobleman who, together with his mother, tried to dissuade him so that he would follow a military career, but Diego did not accept and followed his religious vocation.
In 1640, he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus, and was ordained a priest in 1651. Convinced that his vocation was to serve as a missionary to non-Christians, Diego was assigned to a mission in Manila, Philippines.
In 1662, San Vitores made a stopover on the island of Guaján (called Guam from 1900 onward) on the way to the Philippines, promising to return one day. Three years later, through his close ties to the royal court, he persuaded Philip IV of Spain and his wife Mariana of Austria to have the mission established in Guaján.
In 1668, San Vitores set out from Acapulco, New Spain, for Guam. San Vitores named the Chamorro Archipelago the "Mariana Islands", in honor of the Queen Regent of Spain, Mariana of Austria, and the Blessed Virgin Mary. The missionary arrived in Guam and visited a village called Hagåtña, where he was well received and greeted by its chief Kepuha, whose family donated land so that the first Catholic mission on the island could be established.
On February 2, 1669, he built the first church in the region, which he called "Dulce Nombre de María" (Sweet Name of Mary). After the death of Kepuha in 1669, relations between Spain and the local chiefs worsened, culminating in the war of 1671, led by the chieftain Hurao, among whose targets was the mission, although after several attacks a peace agreement was reached.
In 1672, San Vitores consecrated churches in four villages, among them Merizo. But resistance in the area increased, led by the priest Makahnas and the priestess Kakahnas, both of the indigenous religion, since they were losing power with the conversion of natives to Catholicism.
Martyrdom
A Chinese man named Choco, a criminal from Manila who had been exiled to Guam, began to spread rumors that the baptismal water used by the missionaries was poisonous. Since some sickly infants who were baptized died shortly afterward, many believed the story and cursed the missionaries responsible. Choco was gladly supported by the macanjas (folk healers) and the urritaos (young men) who despised the missionaries.
In their search for a fugitive companion named Esteban, San Vitores and his companion Pedro Calungsod arrived at the village of Tumon, Guam, on April 2, 1672. There they learned that the wife of the chief Mata'pang had given birth to a daughter, and San Vitores immediately went to baptize the girl. Influenced by Choco's slanders, the chief firmly opposed it. To give Mata'pang time to calm down, the missionaries gathered the children and some adults of the village on the nearby shore and began to chant the principles of the Catholic religion with them. They invited Mata'pang to join them, but he shouted that he was angry with God and was fed up with the Christian teachings.
Determined to kill the missionaries, Mata'pang went off and tried to seek help from another villager, named Hurao, who was not a Christian. Hurao initially refused, aware of the missionaries' kindness toward the natives, but when Mata'pang called him a coward, he decided to help him. Meanwhile, during Mata'pang's brief absence from his hut, San Vitores and Calungsod baptized the girl, with the consent of her Christian mother.
When Mata'pang learned of his daughter's baptism, he became even more furious. He first hurled spears at Pedro, who was able to dodge them. Witnesses state that Calungsod could have escaped the attack, but did not want to leave San Vitores alone. Those who knew Calungsod personally believed that he could have defeated the attackers with weapons; however, San Vitores forbade his companions to carry weapons. Calungsod was struck in the chest by a spear and fell to the ground, and then Hurao immediately charged at him and finished him off with a machete blow to the head. San Vitores absolved Calungsod before he too was killed.
Mata'pang took San Vitores's crucifix and smashed it against a stone while blaspheming against God. Both killers stripped the bodies of Calungsod and San Vitores and tied large stones to their feet, carried them out to sea in their canoes and threw them into the water.
Shortly after his death, the first hagiography of San Vitores was published by Friar Francisco García, titled Vida y martirio del venerable padre Diego Luis de Sanvítores (1683). Later, in the 18th century, the verse work by Francisco Antonio de Castro Laureola sacra de la vida y martirio del venerable padre Diego Luis de Sanvítores (1723) was published.
Sources
- San Diego Luis de San Vitores - Santopedia (in Spanish)
- Diego Luis de San Vitores, Beato - El Santo del Día (in Spanish)[dead link]
- Rogers, Robert F. (1995). Destiny's Landfall: A History of Guam: University of Hawai'i Press. ISBN 0-8248-1678-1
- Carter, Lee D.; Carter, Rosa Roberto; Wuerch, William L (1997). Guam History: Perspectives Volume One: MARC. ISBN 1-878453-28-9
- Risco, Alberto (1970). The apostle of the Marianas: The life, labors, and martyrdom of Ven. Diego Luis de San Vitores, 1627-1672: Diocese of Agana. ASIN: B0006EOYJS
- Chief Kepuha
- Archdiocese of Agana
- Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores, Guam, USA
