The Jesuits, 1534-1921: A History of the Society of Jesus from Its Foundation to the Present TimeCampbell, Thomas J. (Thomas Joseph)
History
The Jesuits, 1534-1921: A History of the Society of Jesus from Its Foundation to the Present Time
Campbell, Thomas J. (Thomas Joseph)
Jesuits -- History
Among the very early missionaries of Mexico was an Irish Jesuit named
Michael Wadding, though he was known among the Spaniards as Miguel
Godinez. He was born at Waterford in 1501, but his mother was a
Frenchwoman, named Marie Valois. He made his studies in Salamanca and
entering the Society April 15, 1609 was sent to Mexico in the following
year. He labored for a long time in the rude missions of Sinaloa and won
to the Faith the whole tribe of the Basirvas, and then taught for
several years in the colleges. He was famous as a director of souls, and
wrote a "Teologia mística" which, was not published until forty years
after his death; however, it made up for the delay by going through ten
editions. His editor, Manuel La Reguera, S. J., says that he also wrote
a "Life of Sister Mary of Jesus," a holy religious whom he was directing
in the way of perfection.
The Jesuit mission work in Mexico which has attracted most attention is
that of Fathers Kino, Salvatierra, Ugarte and their associates. They
were engaged mostly in the evangelization of the Peninsula of Lower
California and the vast northern district of Mexico, known as the
Pimería, or land of the Pima Indians, which extended into what is now
the State of Arizona. The success achieved there and the resources of
the "Pious Fund" which Salvatierra had gathered made the work of
Junípero Serra and the Franciscans in Upper California possible in later
days.
Gilmary Shea (Colonial Days, p. 527) maintains that Eusebio Kino is one
of the greatest of American missionaries. Many historians claim that he
was a German and say that his name "Kino" was an adaptation of Kühn.
That such is not the case is shown by Alegre in his history of the
Jesuits in Mexico; by Sommervogel in his "Bibliothèque des écrivains"
and by Bolton, who has just published Kino's long lost "Autobiography."
Hubert Bancroft pronounces for Kühn, but he publishes an autograph map
which is signed "carta autoptica a Patre Eusebio Chino;" Huonder, in
"The Catholic Encyclopedia," declares him to be a German of Welch Tyrol,
but the "Welch" Tyrol is precisely that part of the country where there
are no Germans. The Chino family still exists, near Trent and has never
spoken anything but Italian. The change from _Ch_ to _K_ had to be made
to prevent the Spaniards from thinking he was a Chinaman; furthermore
the _ch_ in Spanish being always soft would not represent the Italian
letters when they are pronounced _k_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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