Juan de Padilla, OFM (1500–1542) was a Spanish

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

priest and missionary who spent much of his life exploring

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with

Francisco Vásquez de Coronado Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Meaning of the name Francisco In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed " Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comm ...

. He was killed in what would become

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

by Native Americans in 1542.

Biography

Padilla and three other

Franciscans The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor being the largest conte ...

, together with more than 300 Spanish soldiers and workers, accompanied Coronado on his quest for the

Seven Cities of Gold The myth of the Seven Cities of Gold, also known as the Seven Cities of Cíbola (), was popular in the 16th century and later featured in several works of popular culture. According to legend, the seven cities of gold referred to Aztec mythology ...

, a mythical land of great wealth. When Coronado abandoned his search, Padilla and others followed him to explore what is now the

Southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural list of regions of the United States, region of the United States that includes Arizona and New Mexico, along with adjacen ...

; Padilla was one of the first Europeans to see the

Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a mile (). The canyon and adjacent rim are contained within Grand Canyon Nati ...

. But, when Coronado was told by a native named the "Turk" that a great land called ''

Quivira Quivira was a province of the ancestral Wichita people, located near the Great Bend of the Arkansas River in central Kansas, The exact site may be near present-day Lyons extending northeast to Salina. The Wichita city of Etzanoa, which flouris ...

'' was in modern-day

, Coronado's entire party immediately left in search of it. After reaching the location in 1541, the Spaniards camped alongside a Wichita village for 25 days. Finding no gold, and advised by other natives they were being led astray, they executed the Turk. Coronado returned to the Southwest and Padilla followed. One year later, the missionary priest returned to Kansas to preach to the Wichita, and establish the first

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

mission in the present-day United States.

Death

He was killed in Kansas in 1542 by Native Americans, and is considered to be one of the first Christian martyrs in the U.S.

Legends

Juan de Padilla is associated with a miracle known as the "Rising of the coffin of Padre Padilla". The story of seeing his coffin rise above the ground was repeated for many years, and was believed by many people in Isleta, where the Padre is believed to be buried. Additionally, his corpse was claimed to have been fresh when rising the first time according to the legend (

incorruptibility Incorruptibility is a Catholic and Orthodox belief that divine intervention allows some human bodies (specifically saints and beati) to completely or partially avoid the normal process of decomposition after death as a sign of their holiness. I ...

). Anton Docher, once a priest in Isleta, investigated the miracle in the presence of several witnesses. He opened the grave of Padre Padilla. During this operation, Docher injured his arm and suffered from the then highly dangerous

gangrene Gangrene is a type of tissue death caused by a lack of blood supply. Symptoms may include a change in skin color to red or black, numbness, swelling, pain, skin breakdown, and coolness. The feet and hands are most commonly affected. If the ga ...

. Doctors recommended amputation for his survival. The native inhabitants invoked the intercession of Padre Padilla. Docher made a prayer to Padre Padilla to cure and forgive him for what he did, and supposedly, the wound had disappeared.Alice Bullock. ''Living legends of the Santa Fe country'', 1985, pp.85-86cf

Memorial

In 1950, the

Knights of Columbus The Knights of Columbus (K of C) is a global Catholic Church, Catholic Fraternal and service organizations, fraternal service order founded by Michael J. McGivney, Blessed Michael J. McGivney. Membership is limited to practicing Catholic men. ...

erected a commemorative cross dedicated to Padilla near Lyons, Kansas. The stone marker reads:

In popular culture

In the 1976 album '' Leftoverture'' by the American rock group Kansas, the first movement of ''Magnum Opus'' is entitled "Father Padilla Meets the Perfect Gnat".

Notes

References

* * * * * Samuel Gance, ''Anton ou la trajectoire d'un père'', L'Harmattan, Paris, 2013, 208 p. {{DEFAULTSORT:Padilla, Juan De 1500 births 1542 deaths People from Toledo, Spain Spanish explorers of North America Pre-statehood history of Kansas Martyred Roman Catholic priests Franciscan martyrs 16th-century Roman Catholic martyrs