Mexico: Notable Religious Figures, Theologians, Philosophers, etc.

1474 - 1548 - St. Juan Diego (All Facts)

• Nahua Mexican Peasant and Devout Catholic

• He had a vision of the Virgin Mary

  • She told him to go to the Spanish bishop of Mexico and persuade him to build her a church on Tepeyacac Hill

  • When he went to the bishop, the bishop refused to believe his story

• He had a second vision of the Virgin Mary

  • He begged her to use a Spaniard for her mission, rather than a Nahua Mexican

  • She just assured him of her love and concern for his people and asked him to persevere

  • He failed a second time to convince the bishop

• He had a third vision of the Virgin Mary

  • She told him to return the next day to collect proof for his story

  • However, his uncle caught the plague that day, forcing him to stay home

• He had a fourth vision of the Virgin Mary

  • The next day, she cured his uncle and simultaneously met him at Tepeyacac Hill

  • There, she ordered him to pick flowers and carry them to the bishop in his cloak

  • When he did so, he opened his clock, and the image of the Virgin Mary was clearly to be seen on the lining, finally persuading the bishop to build the church

1468 - 1548 - Juan de Zumárraga (All Facts)

• Spanish Basque Franciscan Prelate and First Bishop of Mexico

1485 - 1571 - Andres de Olmos (All Facts)

• Spanish Franciscan Priest, Grammarian, and Ethno-Historian of Mexico's indigenous languages and peoples

• He published the first Nahuatl grammar

1524 - 1579 - Diego de Landa (All Facts)

• Spanish Franciscan Bishop of Yucatán

• He led a campaign against idolatry and human sacrifice, ordering for the burning of a large number of Maya manuscripts which contained knowledge of Mayan religion, culture, and history

1499 - 1590 - Bernardino de Sahagún (All Facts)

• Spanish Franciscan Friar, Missionary, Priest and Ethnographer

  • He was hailed as the foremost historian of the lands of Mexico (New Spain)

  • In parallel to his religious undertakings, he developed himself into an outstanding historian of the native tribes of Mexico (New Spain)

• He began his career as a missionary to the New World

  • He participated in the Catholic evangelization of Mexico (New Spain)

  • While his central task as a missionary was to wipe out native idolatry and replace it with Christian worship, his natural inclination had been to discover as much as possible about the native tribes of Mexico (New Spain)

• He devoted his career to the Colegio de Santiago Tlatelolco, which was dedicated to the education of young native individuals of the tribes of Mexico (New Spain)

• He was an expert in native Mexican crafts, the best of which he saw himself

• He was an expert in native Mexican languages, of which he both read and wrote

1569 / 1585 - Bernardino de Sahagún: General History of the Things of New Spain (All Facts)

• Work which was essentially an encyclopedia of ancient Mexico

• Work which the namesake author begun with the aim of giving his fellow priests as wide as possible a knowledge of the culture with which they deal in evangelizing

• Work which was not the first such history of its kind, but in which the namesake author’s methods made it the most authoritative