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Juan de Padilla

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The Rev.
Juan de Padilla
OFM
Born c. 1490
Toledo, Spain
Died 1542 (aged 51–52)
Kansas, Current U.S.

Juan de Padilla, OFM (1490–1542) was a Spanish Catholic priest and missionary who spent much of his life exploring North America with Francisco Vásquez de Coronado.[1] He was killed in what would become Kansas by Native Americans in 1542. He is seen as the first Christian martyr in the USA.[2]

Biography

Padilla worked as a soldier, then left the army and joined the Franciscan order;[2] he travelled to Mexico in 1528.

Several Franciscans, together with more than 300 Spanish soldiers and workers, left Spain on 23 February 1540 to accompany Coronado on his quest for the Seven Cities of Gold, a mythical land of great wealth.[3][4] When Coronado abandoned his search, Padilla and others followed him to explore what is now the Southwestern United States.[5] Padilla was one of the first Europeans to see the Grand Canyon.

When Coronado was told by a native named the "Turk" that a great land called Quivira was in modern-day Kansas, 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, with fellow missionaries Luis de Escalona and Juan de la Cruz.[5]

Death

He was killed near Herington in Kansas in 1542.[2] He is considered to be one of the first Christian martyrs in the U.S.[6]

Legends

Juan de Padilla is associated with a miracle known as the "Rising of the coffin of Padre Padilla".[7] 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).

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.[8] 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.[9]

Memorial

In 1950, the Knights of Columbus erected a commemorative cross dedicated to Padilla near Lyons, Kansas. The stone marker reads:

This Cross is erected to the memory of Father Padilla, Franciscan Missionary, who stood with Coronado at the erection of the first Christian Cross on these prairies. Father Padilla devoted his life to the service of the Cross and to the Indians of Quivira and suffered a martyr's death in that service in the year of our Lord 1542.

The symbol on the Cross is inscribed, Jesus Christ, Victor, and expresses the victory of faith and sacrifice. The square, quartered by the Cross, denotes the four corners of the World brought into Christian unity when Father Padilla carried the Cross of Christianity to the center of the New World.

This monument is a gift to the people of Kansas by the Knights of Columbus of this State. Erected 1950.

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".[10]

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Juan de Padilla — Friar Minor, protomartyr of the United States of America, member of the Andalusian province, came to Mexico probably in 1528, joining the province of the Holy Gospel. During 1529-1531 he, with an unnamed friar, accompanied Nuño de Guzmán to Nueva Galicia and Culiacán, and prevented the oppression of the natives while as military chaplain. From 1531 to 1540 he made missionary tours among the Indians of Tlamatzolán, Tuchpán, Tzapotitlán, Totlamán, Amula, Caulán, Xicotlán, Avalos or Zaolán, Amacuecán, Atoyac, Tzacoalco, and Colima. He founded the convent of Tzapotlán, becoming its first superior, and erected another at Tuchpán, making it the headquarters for the missionary friars. He established the monastery of Tulantcingo, governing it until 1540, when he resigned to follow Fr. Marcos de Niza, the discoverer of Arizona and New Mexico, with Francisco Vásquez de Coranado, on the memorable march to the fabled Seven Cities, and thus reached the Upper Rio Grande near the present Bernalillo about the end of 1540. He also accompanied Coronado in his search to Quivira, probably as far as central Kansas. When the disappointed general and his army in 1542 abandoned New Mexico, Fr. De Padilla, Fr. Juan de la Cruz, Brother Luis de Ubeda or Escalona, resolved to stay behind to evangelize the Indians. A Portugese soldier, Andres da Campo, two Mexican tertiaries, Lucas and Sebastin, two other Mexican Indians, and a half-breed boy also remained with the zealous friars.

After working with success among the Tíguez on the Rio Grande for some time, Fr. De Padilla's zeal urged him to afford other tribes an opportunity of knowing and serving Christ. Accompanied by Da Campo, Lucas, Sebastian, and the two Mexican Indians, he set out for the north-east. When the little party reached the plains, they encountered a band of savages, who attacked them and slew Fr. De Padilla as he calmly knelt in prayer. The savages threw the body into a pit. The date and locality of his martyrdom are uncertain, Fr. Vetancurt in his Menologio assigning 30 November, 1544. Some believe he perished in eastern Colorado or western Kansas, but this is conjecture. The story believed in New Mexico, that his body was discovered by Pueblo Indians, brought to Isleta, interred beneath the sanctuary of the church, and that it rises and falls at stated periods is a myth. The remains of the Franciscan buried there are doubtless those of Fr. Juan José de Padilla, who died a peaceful death there two centuries later. Fr. De la Cruz and Brother de Ubeda were likewise put to death at the instigation of Indian sorcerers at the missions on the Rio Grande.

Mendieta, Historia eclesiástica indiana (reprint, Mexico, 1870); Tello, Crónica de la Santa Provincia de Xalisco (reprint, Guadalajara, 1891); Mota Padilla, Historia de la Conquista de la Nueva Galicia (Mexico, 1870); Vetancurt, Menologio Franciscano (Mexico, 1697); Torquemada, Monarquia indiana (Madrid, 1723); Beaumont, Crónica de la prov. de Michoacan (reprint, Mexico, 1874); Fourteeth Ann. Rept. of the Bur. of Ethnol. (Washington); Shea, The Catholic Church in Colonial Days (New York, 1886); Bandelier, American Catholic Quarterly Review (Philadelphia, July, 1890); Lummis, Spanish Pioneers (Chicago, 1893); Bancroft, History of New Mexico and Arizona (San Francisco, 1889); Defouri, The Martyrs of New Mexico (Las Vegas, 1893); Engelhardt, The Franciscans in Arizona (Harbor Springs, 1899).

References

  1. Back to citation Engelhardt, Zephyrin (1913). "Juan de Padilla". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  2. Back to citation occurrence 2.0 Back to citation occurrence 2.1 Back to citation occurrence 2.2 "Juan Padilla: Spanish missionary". Britannica. Retrieved 20 November 2025.
  3. Back to citation Winship. pp. 32–4, 37
  4. Back to citation Flint, R. (Winter 2005). "What They Never Told You about the Coronado Expedition". Kiva. 71 (2): 203–217. doi:10.1179/kiv.2005.71.2.004. JSTOR 30246725. S2CID 129070895.
  5. Back to citation occurrence 5.0 Back to citation occurrence 5.1 Anderson, Hugh Allen (24 September 2020). "Fray Juan de Padilla: The First Christian Martyr of Texas". Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 20 November 2025.
  6. Back to citation Engelhardt, p. 14: "...[in] 1542, three Friars Minor were martyred in New Mexico as victims of their zeal for the Christian Faith. They were Fr. Juan de Padilla, Fr. Juan de la Cruz, and Brother Luis de Ubeda or Escalona.
  7. Back to citation Samuel Gance, Anton ou la trajectoire d'un père, L'Harmattan, Paris, 2013, ISBN 978-2-336-29016-4, pp. 179–186
  8. Back to citation De Aragon, Ray John (2012). Hidden History of Spanish New Mexico. The History Press. p. 81. ISBN 978-0-86534-506-5.
  9. Back to citation Alice Bullock. Living Legends of the Santa Fe Country, 1985, pp.85-87
  10. Back to citation Bogdanov, Vladimir; Woodstra, Chris; Erlewine, Stephen Thomas, eds. (2002). All Music Guide Rock: The Definitive Guide to Rock Pop and Soul. Backbeat Books. p. 611. ISBN 087930653X. Retrieved 25 September 2025 – via Google Books.

Bibliography

  • Engelhardt, Zephyrin, O.F.M. (1908). The Missions and Missionaries of Kansas, Alaska, Volume One. The James H. Barry Co., San Francisco, CA.
  • Keleher, Julia M; Chant, Elsie Ruth (2009). The Padre of Isleta: The Story of Father Anton Docher. Sunstone press Publishing. ISBN 978-0-86534-714-4.
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