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The Twelve Apostles of Mexico, the Franciscan Twelve, or the Twelve Apostles of New Spain, were 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
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 ...
on May 13 or 14, 1524 and reached
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
on June 17 or 18,
[Robert Ricard, ''The Spiritual Conquest of Mexico''. Translated by Lesley Byrd Simpson. Berkeley: University of California Press 1966, p. 21.] with the goal of
converting
Converting companies are companies that specialize in modifying or combining raw materials such as polyesters, adhesives, silicone, adhesive tapes, foams, plastics, felts, rubbers, liners and metals, as well as other materials, to create new produ ...
its
indigenous population
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
to Christianity. Conqueror
Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca (; ; 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of w ...
had requested friars of the Franciscan and Dominican Orders to evangelize the Indians. Despite the small number, it had religious significance and also marked the beginning of the systematic evangelization of the Indians in New Spain.
Franciscan Fray
Pedro de Gante
Fray Pieter van der Moere, also known as Fray Pedro de Gante or Pedro de Mura (c. 1480 – 1572) was a Franciscan missionary in sixteenth century Mexico. Born in Geraardsbergen in present-day Belgium, he was of Flemish descent. Since Flanders, li ...
had already begun the evangelization and instruction of natives in New Spain since 1523. Fray Juan Galpión had offered himself as a missionary but could not go himself; he organized the Twelve Franciscans with Fray
Martín de Valencia
Martín de Valencia was born in Valencia de Don Juan, in the bishopric of Oviedo, Spain, ca. 1474. He died Tlalmanalco, Mexico, 21 March 1534. He was a Spanish Franciscan missionary, leader of the Twelve Apostles of Mexico, the first group of mendi ...
as its head. The group consisted of:
* Fray
Martín de Valencia
Martín de Valencia was born in Valencia de Don Juan, in the bishopric of Oviedo, Spain, ca. 1474. He died Tlalmanalco, Mexico, 21 March 1534. He was a Spanish Franciscan missionary, leader of the Twelve Apostles of Mexico, the first group of mendi ...
(their leader)
* Fray
Francisco de Soto
Francisco de Soto (ca. 1500 – 1563) was a Spanish composer and organist. He worked in the Royal Court at Madrid. He was one of the Franciscan Twelve, a group of twelve Franciscan missionaries who arrived in the newly founded Viceroyalty of N ...
* Fray
Martín de Coruña (also known as Fray Martín de Jesǘs)
* Fray
Juan Juárez
* Fray
Antonio de Ciudad Rodrigo
Fray Antonio de Ciudad Rodrigo (also Antonio Civitatencis) was a Franciscan friar. He was one of the first twelve to come to New Spain in 1524, and the second provincial of the province of the Holy Gospel
A province is almost always an admin ...
* Fray
Toribio de Benavente Motolinia
Toribio of Benavente, O.F.M. (1482, Benavente, Spain – 1565, Mexico City, New Spain), also known as Motolinía, was a Franciscan missionary who was one of the famous Twelve Apostles of Mexico who arrived in New Spain in May 1524. His publish ...
*
García de Cisneros
* Fray
Luis de Fuensalida
*
Juan de Ribas
''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronounced differently) in the Isle of Man. In Spanish, t ...
* Fray
Francisco Jiménez
* Fray
Andrés de Córdoba,
* Fray
Juan de Palos.
(Juan de Palos, a lay Franciscan, took the place of Fray Bernardino de la Torre, who did not sail with the group. Fray Andrés de Córdoba was also a lay brother.)
The most famous of the Twelve was
Toribio de Benavente Motolinia
Toribio of Benavente, O.F.M. (1482, Benavente, Spain – 1565, Mexico City, New Spain), also known as Motolinía, was a Franciscan missionary who was one of the famous Twelve Apostles of Mexico who arrived in New Spain in May 1524. His publish ...
, whose extensive writings on the customs of the Nahuas and the challenges of Christian evangelization make his works essential for the history of this key period in Mexican history.
Missionary orders
The Franciscan Twelve received holy orders ("obediencia") from their minister general,
Francisco De los Angeles, prior to their departure for Mexico.
A copy of this obediencia was brought to New Spain when they arrived in 1524.
These orders were interspersed with the expectations of conduct of the Franciscan Twelve, including expectations of the hardships and possible death in serving in such a role.
The Franciscan Twelve are described as being similar to the first apostles in their missionary deeds and aspirations.
Further conceptualizations of the divine duty of Christian conversion, the palpability of the Devil's force on Earth, and
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 ...
acting as a battleground between God and the Devil also make an appearance in these orders.
Natives are depicted as entirely ignorant to this war for their souls, and thus, De los Angeles stresses the natives' need for the conversion the Franciscan Twelve offer.
Areas of evangelization
The first evangelization began in 1500 on Santo Domingo, where the Franciscan mission was officially established.
The Twelve Apostles of New Spain arrived at Mexico in 1524, greeted by the Aztec conquerors'
Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca (; ; 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of w ...
. Evangelization thus began in the Valley of Mexico and the Valley of Puebla. They chose these areas as their first foundations due to them being important indigenous settlements. In the Valley of Puebla,
Tlaxcala
Tlaxcala (; , ; from nah, Tlaxcallān ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tlaxcala ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Tlaxcala), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 60 municipaliti ...
and Huejotzinco, both allies of the Spaniards in the conquest of the
Mexica
The Mexica (Nahuatl: , ;''Nahuatl Dictionary.'' (1990). Wired Humanities Project. University of Oregon. Retrieved August 29, 2012, frolink/ref> singular ) were a Nahuatl-speaking indigenous people of the Valley of Mexico who were the rulers of ...
, were chosen.
[Ricard, ''Spiritual Conquest'', p. 64.] In the Valley of Mexico,
Texcoco, another ally of the Spaniards and formerly a member of the Aztec Triple Alliance was an initial site, as well as Churubusco.
Initial reception of the Twelve
The Twelve were originally received in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan in 1524.
The lords and holy men of the Aztec empire accepted the Spaniards' arrival, and even accepted the Spaniards and their king as rulers.
However, the Aztec leaders took issue with the Spaniards' religious doctrines that were being pressed upon them.
They accepted many of the ideas the Spaniards believed in, except the statement the Franciscan friars made that the Aztecs worshipped false gods.
The Aztec leaders expressed that their tradition of ancestral worship and supplication to their gods would not be easily abandoned.
In a subtle political maneuver, the Aztecs leaders asserted that while they would never incite a rebellion or foster unrest, the same could not be said about the rest of the population.
Additional barriers to conversion
The Franciscan Twelve faced a considerable hurdle to their evangelization efforts: the numerous native languages. In addition, the fact that natives lived quite dispersed outside of urban centers posed a difficulty. Such barriers were later addressed through the creation of "pueblos de indios", also known as "reducciones indígenas": the conglomeration of natives into towns to ease evangelization.
Institutions of evangelization
Schools
The education of natives - especially their children - was a crucial practice in relation to their evangelization.
Thus, schools became institutions of power and control.
Following Cortés and his successful military conquests in the Valley of Mexico, Texcoco was the location of school established by three Franciscans, one of which was
Pedro de Gante
Fray Pieter van der Moere, also known as Fray Pedro de Gante or Pedro de Mura (c. 1480 – 1572) was a Franciscan missionary in sixteenth century Mexico. Born in Geraardsbergen in present-day Belgium, he was of Flemish descent. Since Flanders, li ...
.
In 1524, the Franciscan Twelve followed de Gante's example, establishing schools in Tlatelolco-Mexico City, Tlaxcala, and Huejotzingo, to name a few.
Pueblos de Indios
The aforementioned ''pueblos de indios'', also known as "reducciones indígenas", were methods used to centralize native living structures.
''Pueblos'' were promoted by the Spanish authorities in the second half of the 16th century, starting with a royal decree in 1548.
They were devised not only to more easily instruct the population in Christianity and evangelize, but in order to carry out a more efficient collection of taxes.
Mission churches (''Conventos'')
The Franciscan Twelve initiated the sociopolitical tool of the "Mission church", which accordingly benefitted both the Roman Catholic Church and Spanish Crown (often inextricably linked in early Spanish-American relations).
This began after
Pope Paul III
Pope Paul III ( la, Paulus III; it, Paolo III; 29 February 1468 – 10 November 1549), born Alessandro Farnese, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 October 1534 to his death in November 1549.
He came to ...
's
Sublimis Deus
''Sublimis Deus'' (English: ''The sublime God''; erroneously cited as ''Sublimus Dei'' and occasionally as ''Sic Dilexit'') is a bull promulgated by Pope Paul III on June 2, 1537, which forbids the enslavement of the indigenous peoples of the Am ...
decree in 1537 that native persons were not "savages" and instead human beings with souls and possessing the intellectual capability of understanding - and thus adopting the beliefs of -
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
; this ended the mass subjection of native populations to enslavement, though not eliminating this practice in entirety.
Thus, religious orders sent their piety to New Spain in droves particularly between the years of 1523 to 1580.
Among these religious orders were such orders as the
Dominicans, the
Franciscans
, image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg
, image_size = 200px
, caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans
, abbreviation = OFM
, predecessor =
, ...
,
Augustinians
Augustinians are members of Christian religious orders that follow the Rule of Saint Augustine, written in about 400 AD by Augustine of Hippo. There are two distinct types of Augustinians in Catholic religious orders dating back to the 12th–13 ...
, and the
Jesuits
The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
.
These orders were employed to convert the native inhabitants and thus expand the hold of Christianity. To do so, friars built mission churches (''conventos'' in Spanish) in indigenous communities.
These churches acted as the home base of the religious militia consisting of these orders' friars, and served to not only empower the Church through acting as bases of conversion, but also facilitated the colonization of New Spain without the use of a standing army.
Transformative impact and precedent
The Franciscan Twelve arriving 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 ...
was the beginning of a sweeping wave of evangelization that would come to encompass a large swath of indigenous city-states. The Franciscan Twelve thus galvanized a new era of missionary work.
From 1524-1534, Dominicans and Augustinians would join the "spiritual conquest".
Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo, a 16th century historian, remarked of this phenomenon that "...these lands are flooded with friars; but none are greying, all being less than thirty years old. I pray to God that they are capable of serving Him." Despite other religious orders being present and emphasizing conversion, the Franciscans were unique in that they believed their evangelization efforts, in addition to the creation of a "primitive apostolic church" in New Spain would result in the second coming of Christ.
Accordingly, this new wave of missionaries further established the Roman Catholic Church as a figurehead within New Spain and indigenous livelihood.
Accordingly, the system of ''
patronato real
The ''patronato'' () system in Spain (and a similar '' padroado'' system in Portugal) was the expression of royal patronage controlling major appointments of Church officials and the management of Church revenues, under terms of concordats with ...
'' (royal patronage) allowed for the unprecedented privilege of the Spanish Crown in Church affairs in exchange for Spain's funding of missionary ventures abroad.
Through this system, the Spanish Crown and Roman Catholic Church grew in tandem economically, geographically, and politically, and created a strong foundation for the future of Spanish colonization, conversion, and capitalization.
References
Sources
*Matthew Bunso
''The Catholic Almanac's Guide to the Church'' Our Sunday Visitor Inc.,U.S. (1 Sep 2001), p. 56
*Toribio de Benavente Motolinia, ''Motolinia's History of the Indians of New Spain''. Translated by Elizabeth Andros Foster. Greenwood Press 1973
*Robert Ricard. ''The Spiritual Conquest of Mexico: An Essay on the Apostolate and the Evangelizing Methods of the Mendicant Orders in New Spain, 1523-1572.'' Originally published in French 1933. Translated by Lesley Byrd Simpson. Berkeley: University of California Press 1966.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mexico, Twelve Apostles Of
History of Christianity in Mexico
History of Mexico