Diego Carranza (born in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, 1559; died at Tehuantepec, date unknown) was a Dominican missionary in

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Am ...

Life

Carranza entered the Dominican Order on 12 May 1577, and was sent to

Nejapa Nejapa is a municipality in the San Salvador department of El Salvador. Traditions Las Bolas De Fuego One of the major traditions of Nejapa is ''Las Bolas De Fuego'' ("Balls of Fire"), celebrated August 31st. The celebration has two origins, ...

Oaxaca Oaxaca ( , also , , from nci, Huāxyacac ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca), is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of Mexico. It is ...

after being ordained a priest. He was assigned to the mission among the forest-dwelling Oaxaca Chontal people. Despite resistance from the Chontal, who were uninterested in conversion to Christianity, Carranza was partly successful in his efforts to settle them in villages, baptize them, and convince them to dress in European clothing. Among the villages in which Carranza erected churches was Santa María Texcatitlán. For twelve years Carranza led an exposed life, and contracted

leprosy Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a long-term infection by the bacteria ''Mycobacterium leprae'' or ''Mycobacterium lepromatosis''. Infection can lead to damage of the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. This nerve damag ...

. He must have died quite young, but the exact date is unknown.

Works

He composed, in the Chontal language, a "Doctrina cristiana", "Exercicios espirituales", and "Sermones". They remained in manuscript, and were later lost. In 1580, Carranza published grammatical studies on Chontal.

References

;Attribution * {{DEFAULTSORT:Carranza, Diego 1559 births Roman Catholic missionaries in New Spain Year of death unknown Dominican missionaries