Martyrs of Paraguay

Feastday: November 17

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Three Jesuit priests dreamed of bringing the Good News of Jesus into the world.  Fathers Roque Gonzalez, Alphonsus Rodriguez, and Juan de Castillo were missionaries in South America in 1628 and doing a pretty good job of converting the Indians of Paraguay into Christians.  Indeed, they were doing such a good job that the local medicine man didn’t like the fact that he was losing his followers.  He solved the problem by killing the three.

People were not surprised when Roque Gonzalez grew up to be a priest.  Born in Paraguay of noble Spanish parents, the young Roque was an exceptionally good child and was very religious.  The Indians of Paraguay fascinated him and when he was ordained at the age of 23, Gonzalez wanted to teach them about Jesus.  He searched for the Indians in the hidden and faraway places of Paraguay.

Ten years after he was ordained, Roque Gonzalez still felt unworthy as a priest.  So humble was he that he that when the Church wanted to promote him, he joined the Jesuits. As a Jesuit he had more opportunities to do missionary work.  He worked in settlements of Christian Indians catechizing and teaching the Indians how to farm.  Father Gonzales went on to establish other settlements, called “reductions.”  He founded one of his last reductions along with Alphonsus Rodriguez and Juan de Castillo.  It was near the Ijuhi River and they dedicated it to Our Lady’s Assumption. 

These two younger priests came to be with Fr. Gonzalez because they admired the work he was doing with the Indians.   Alphonsus Rodriguez was born in Spain in 1598 and ordained a Jesuit in 1624.  Juan de Castillo also came from Spain.  After leaving an education in law, he was ordained a year after Alphonsus.  Together, the three priests planted crosses in the ground and sat beneath them preaching to the Indians.

Fr. Castillo remained in charge of the Ijuhi River settlement while Fr. Gonzalez and Fr. Rodriguez set out for Brazil to establish yet another mission, called the All Saints Reduction.  It was in Brazil that the medicine man sought to stop the progress of the missionaries.  Fr. Rodriguez had gone to the woods to cut down a tree to hang the chapel bell on.  The medicine man’s group struck his head several times with a tomahawk.  Fr. Gonzalez heard the commotion from the chapel where he prepared to celebrate mass. When he went out to see what was going on, he too was killed.   The attackers demolished the altar and vessels.  After throwing the two bodies on the rubble, they set fire to the chapel.  The day was November 15, 1628.   Two days later the raiding party went back to Paraguay and killed Fr. Castillo.  Fr. Castillo had been in Paraguay for only 15 days.

All three priests were canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1988 and their feast day is November 17.

Connecting to Faith First® Legacy Edition

Grade 5, chapter 24