William A. "Buck" Stanton (1870–1909) was an American

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

and

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

who was a missionary to

British Honduras British Honduras was a Crown colony on the east coast of Central America — specifically located on the southern edge of the Yucatan Peninsula from 1783 to 1964, then a self-governing colony — renamed Belize from June 1973

, today's

Belize Belize is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a maritime boundary with Honduras to the southeast. P ...

Naturalist

Stanton was the first Jesuit to go from

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

to the Belize mission, in 1897. He was a naturalist, contributing specimens of the country’s

flora Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for f ...

to the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

, and discovering the ''Asplenium Stantonii Copeland'', a fern plant. The Smithsonian also credits him with discovering 67 new varieties of hymenopterous insects, of which one genus and eight species are named after him.Carrabine, M.
William Stanton of Belize
'. Mission Series #14, (1932) pp. 25-34. While teaching biology at St. John’s College, he organized the first field day, beginning a long tradition of sporting events in the Belizean community.Woods, Charles M. Sr., et al. ''Years of Grace: The History of Roman Catholic Evangelization in Belize: 1524-2014''. Belize: Roman Catholic Diocese of Belize City-Belmopan, 2015, p. 113.

Priesthood

After two years in Belize, Stanton left for priestly studies and was ordained in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, during this time helping at the

Manila Observatory The Manila Observatory is a non-profit research institute housed on the campus of the Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City, Philippines. It was founded by the Society of Jesus, commonly known as the Jesuits, in 1865 as the Observatorio M ...

, which was a part of the Jesuit Ateneo de Manila University. He returned to Belize in 1904 to establish the church at

Benque Viejo del Carmen Benque Viejo del Carmen ("Benque") is the westernmost town in Belize, by road west and south of Belize City, at the Guatemalan border. San Ignacio lies 13 km to the east and Melchor de Mencos just across the border. The Mopan River runs alon ...

on Belize’s Western border with

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

. Benque had been a mission station in the heart of

Mayan Mayan most commonly refers to: * Maya peoples, various indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Maya civilization, pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Mayan languages, language family spoken ...

lands, but beginning with Stanton took on permanency. He described the parish in his letters home. "I have eight hundred people here at Benque Viejo. ... Some talk a little Spanish, but most of them Mayan. My district comprises over 30 parishes and I am the only priest." He wrote of battling his way for 40 miles through the bush, about 10 of it on foot with a 50-pound saddle bag after his horse slipped its halter. After Stanton contracted cancer, he returned in 1909 to the United States, where he died at the age of 40.

Naturalist

Priesthood

References

Further reading