Juan María de Salvatierra

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Fr. Salvatierra

Juan María de Salvatierra (November 15, 1648–July 17, 1717) was a Catholic missionary to the Americas.

His family was of Spanish origin, the name being written originally Salva-Tierra. Born in Milan, Italy, he studied in the Jesuit college of Parma. It was there that he accidentally came across a book upon the "Indian missions," which fascinated him. He entered the Jesuit order in Genoa and in 1675 he sailed for Mexico. There he further studied theology, and was for several years professor of rhetoric in the College of Puebla.

Declining a position in the cathedral, he received permission to devote himself to the conversion of the indigenous people of southwestern North America, and in June 1680, set out for the lands of the Tarahumara people in the mountains of Chihuahua. He lived among them for 10 years, founding several Catholic missions along the way. He was subsequently appointed visitor of the missions in Sinaloa and Sonora, Mexico, and there formed a project for the "spiritual conquest" of California, as all the military expeditions to that country had been without result.

Soon afterwards, through conversations with the missionary explorer, Father Eusebio Kino, he conceived an intense desire for the evangelization of Lower California, for which undertaking official authority was finally granted in 1697, all expense to be at the cost of the missionaries. After obtaining permission from his superiors, he sailed on 10 October 1697, for Baja California,

With one small boat's crew and six soldiers Salvatierra landed 15 October 1697, at Concepcion Bay, on the coast of the peninsula, and a few days later, on 19 October, he laid the foundation of Misión Nuestra Señora de Loreto, the first of the California missions, which he dedicated to Our Lady of Loreto, his special patroness through life. For a time he acted as priest, captain, sentry, and cook, besides studying the language from a vocabulary prepared by an earlier Jesuit visitor, Father Juan Copart, and from local indigenous people who could be induced to come near.

He soon mastered an indigenous language, and in seven years established six other missions along the coast. In the organization and later conduct of the work his chief collaborator was Father Juan de Ugarte. The contributions for this purpose, by generous donors, formed the basis of the historic fondo piadoso, or Pious Fund of California, for many years a subject of controversy with the republican government of Mexico. He also made some important explorations.

In 1704 he was appointed provincial of his order, and resided in Mexico, but when his term was concluded in 1707 he returned to his missions in California.

In 1717 he was called to the capital by the viceroy, Baltasar de Zúñiga y Guzmán, Marqués de Valero y Duque de Arion, to provide material for the History of California, which King Philip V had ordered to be written. Although suffering from illness, Salvatierra obeyed, and, crossing the Gulf of California, continued his voyage along the coast until he arrived in and died at Guadalajara. The whole city assembled at his funeral, and the remains were deposited amidst ceremonies rarely seen at the burial of a Jesuit missionary, in the chapel which he had erected to the Lady of Loreto.

He wrote Cartas sobre la Conquista espiritual de Californias (1698) and Nuevas cartas sobre Californias (1699), which have been used by Father Miguel Venegas in his Historia de Californias, and his "Relaciones" (1697-1709) in Documentos para la Historia de Mexico (1853-7).

Salvatierra is still known as "the apostle of California," a title he shares with Junípero Serra, who founded many of the Spanish missions of Alta California.