Sebastián Montero (born in

Écija Écija () is a city and municipality of Spain belonging to the province of Seville, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is in the countryside, 85 km east of the city of Seville. According to the 2008 census, Écija had a total populat ...

) was a

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

secular priest In Christianity, the term secular clergy refers to deacons and priests who are not monastics or otherwise members of religious life. A secular priest (sometimes known as a diocesan priest) is a priest who commits themselves to a certain geogr ...

who was active in the later half of the sixteenth century in North America. In the historical record, Montero was the first person to introduce Christianity in what is now North Carolina.

Biography

Montero was brought by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés to proselytize Native Americans in what was considered the northern limits of Spanish Florida. Montero accompanied explorer Juan Pardo as a chaplain to present-day

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

. In February 1567, the Pardo expedition arrived at a Wateree village called ''Guatari'' in what is now Rowan County. The Spaniards called the village Salamanca in honor of the ancient city of

Salamanca Salamanca () is a city in western Spain and is the capital of the Province of Salamanca in the autonomous community of Castile and León. The city lies on several rolling hills by the Tormes River. Its Old City was declared a UNESCO World Herit ...

in western Spain. Pardo left Montero and four soldiers, under the command of Lucas de Cañizares, in the village to establish a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

mission. The mission was abandoned around 1572 and Montero subsequently returned to Spain.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Montero, Sebastian Pre-statehood history of North Carolina Spanish missions in the United States Spanish colonization of the Americas Colonial United States (Spanish) 16th-century Spanish Roman Catholic priests History of Catholicism in the United States People from Écija