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Roque González de Santa Cruz
Roque González de Santa Cruz S.J. | |
|---|---|
 Paraguayan Jesuit priest and martyr. | |
| Saint, Martyr | |
| Born | Roque González de Santa Cruz November 17, 1576  Asunción, Governorate of New Andalusia of the Río de la Plata |
| Died | November 15, 1628 (aged 52) Caibaté, Misiones Orientales |
| Beatified | January 28, 1934 by Pope Pius XI |
| Canonized | 1988 by Pope John Paul II |
| Feast | November 15 in Paraguay November 17 in Argentina |
| Patronage | Of the missions. |
Roque González de Santa Cruz (Asunción, Paraguay, November 17, 1576 – Caibaté, Brazil, November 15, 1628) was a Paraguayan criollo priest and martyr, founder of several Jesuit missions and reductions. He was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1988.
Biography
He was the son of Bartolomé González de Villaverde (b. 1515), a native of León, and of María de Santa Cruz (b. 1538), probably a mestiza from Asunción. His mother, María, is presumed to have been the natural daughter of the conquistador Juan de Santa Cruz (b. 1510), a native of Toledo, and of a Guaraní woman named Francisca (b. 1520). Both his father and his maternal grandfather came to America in the expedition of Pedro de Mendoza.
At only 22 years of age he was ordained a priest by Hernando de Trejo y Sanabria, Bishop of Córdoba, and some time later he was appointed parish priest of the Cathedral of Asunción by the Spanish Bishop Martín Ignacio de Loyola, a relative of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. He carried out various apostolic activities and declined the office of vicar general of Asunción because he wanted to go out to the natives themselves to evangelize them.
In 1609 he left his work as parish priest of Asunción and entered the Society of Jesus, beginning his labor as an evangelizing missionary. On March 25, 1615, he founded the reduction of Nuestra Señora de la Anunciación de Itapuá,[1] which in 1621 was moved to the present-day Paraguayan city of Encarnación, in the Itapúa Department, of which it is the capital.
In 1619 he founded the reduction of Nuestra Señora de la Inmaculada Concepción (today Concepción de la Sierra)[1] and in 1627 he founded the reduction of Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria, in Caazapaminí (present-day Brazilian territory).[1] He later founded the reduction of San Javier on the bank of the Uruguay River. Along that river he extended his work southward, taking part in the founding of the reduction of Yapeyú, in the present-day Corrientes Province (Argentina), which later acquired importance and an extensive jurisdiction, and where the military officer José de San Martín (1778–1850) was born.
From Yapeyú he set out toward the interior of the south of present-day Brazil, founding the reductions of San Nicolás (today Sao Nicolau);[1] Asunción del Iyuí and Caaró. It was precisely in the area of Iyuí that he had serious differences with the cacique Ñezú, and thus on November 15, 1628, this reduction was destroyed and both Father Roque González de Santa Cruz and the Spanish Father Alonso Rodríguez Olmedo were murdered at Caaró. The same fate befell the Jesuit Juan del Castillo, also a Spaniard, who was murdered two days later, on November 17, 1628.
The bodies were thrown onto a bonfire, but, according to the account, Roque's heart (which miraculously remained intact) spoke to them, making them see what they had done. His heart and the axe with which he had been killed were taken to Rome. They were brought back by Father Tomás Travi and, after a short period in Argentina, they were taken to the Chapel of the Martyrs (Colegio Cristo Rey) in Asunción, where they are currently kept.
On January 28, 1934, he was beatified by Pope Pius XI, together with his fellow martyrs, and on May 16, 1988, Pope John Paul II proclaimed him a Paraguayan Holy Martyr in a ceremony held in Asunción, the Paraguayan capital,[2] together with the martyrs Juan del Castillo and Alfonso Rodríguez Olmedo, until then Blesseds. He thus became the first criollo saint of the Río de la Plata.
Saint Roque González de Santa Cruz is considered the first founder of the present-day cities of Posadas, in Argentina, and Encarnación, in Paraguay, with his feast on November 15 and November 17 in Paraguay and in Argentina, respectively. In addition, the bridge that joins these two cities bears his name in honor of his work and dedication to this Río de la Plata region. There are also Catholic schools bearing his name on both banks of the Paraná River.
The gigantic dam that feeds the Itaipu hydroelectric plant, on the border between Paraguay and Brazil, on the Paraná River, also bears his name; it was inaugurated on May 6, 1991, by Presidents Andrés Rodríguez of Paraguay and Fernando Collor de Melo of Brazil. On that occasion, during the religious service, the first Mass in honor of Saint Roque de Santa Cruz was heard, for soloists, choir and orchestra, composed by the Paraguayan musician José Luis Miranda Fiori. Moreover, today the chapels of San Ignacio Guazú, Paraguay, have a statue of him to remember him as the first saint of Paraguay.
In his honor, a town called Tavapy, located in the department of Paraguarí, southwest of Asunción, was renamed, first as Beato Roque González de Santacruz, and later called San Roque González de Santa Cruz (Paraguay).
See also
References
Bibliography
- de Lafuente Machain, Ricardo and Sorg, Gustavo Miguel (2006). Los parientes del beato Roque González de Santa Cruz y Los Gonzalez de Santa Cruz, en el apartado de la Revista Estudios agosto 1934 y en el Boletín Nº 5 del Instituto Correntino de Ciencias Genealógicas (in español). Amorrortu, Buenos Aires and Moglia Ediciones, respectively. ISBN 978-987-1035-94-6.
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