Francisco de Soto (ca. 1500 – 1563) was a Spanish composer and organist. He worked in the Royal Court at

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

. He was one of the Franciscan Twelve, a group of twelve

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

who arrived in the newly founded Viceroyalty of New Spain in May, 1524 for the purpose of the

conversion Conversion or convert may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * "Conversion" (''Doctor Who'' audio), an episode of the audio drama ''Cyberman'' * "Conversion" (''Stargate Atlantis''), an episode of the television series * "The Conversion" ...

of its indigenous population.Matthew Bunso
''The Catholic Almanac's Guide to the Church''
Our Sunday Visitor Inc.,U.S. (1 Sep 2001), p.56 He succeeded Fray Marcos de Niza, a

friar, as the

Provincial Provincial may refer to: Government & Administration * Provincial capitals, an administrative sub-national capital of a country * Provincial city (disambiguation) * Provincial minister (disambiguation) * Provincial Secretary, a position in Can ...

of the

province of the Holy Gospel A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outs ...

, making de Soto the fourth provincial of the province of the Holy Gospel.

References

1500 births 1563 deaths 16th-century Spanish people 16th-century composers {{Spain-composer-stub