Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, SJ (13 June 1585 – 11 April 1652) was a

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

and

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who 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.Thoma ...

in the

Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...

Reductions Reductions (, also called ; ) were settlements established by Spanish rulers and Roman Catholic missionaries in Spanish America and the Spanish East Indies (the Philippines). In Portuguese-speaking Latin America, such reductions were also ...

Life

Montoya was born in Lima, Peru, on 13 June 1585. He entered the

Society of Jesus The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 ...

on 1 November 1606. In the same year, he accompanied Diego Torres, the first provincial of Paraguay, to this mission. In co-operation with José Cataldino and Simon Mazeta, he founded the Reductions of Guayra. He also brought a number of tribal groups into the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, and is said to have personally

baptized Baptism (from ) is a Christian sacrament of initiation almost invariably with the use of water. It may be performed by sprinkling or pouring water on the head, or by immersing in water either partially or completely, traditionally three ...

100,000

Indians Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

. As head of the missions from 1620 he had charge of the "Reductions" on the upper and middle course of the

Paraná River The Paraná River ( ; ; ) is a river in south-central South America, running through Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina for some ."Parana River". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. ...

, on the

Uruguay River The Uruguay River ( ; ) is a major river in South America. It flows from north to south and forms parts of the boundaries of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, separating some of the Argentine provinces of La Mesopotamia from the other two countr ...

, and the Tape River, and added thirteen further "

reductions Reductions (, also called ; ) were settlements established by Spanish rulers and Roman Catholic missionaries in Spanish America and the Spanish East Indies (the Philippines). In Portuguese-speaking Latin America, such reductions were also ...

" to the twenty-six already existing. When the missions of Guayra were endangered by the incursions of

Paulistas Paulistas are the inhabitants of the state of São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Brazil, and of its antecessor the Capitaincy of São Vicente, whose capital early shifted from the village of São Vicente, Brazil, São Vicente to the one of São Pa ...

from

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

in search of

slaves Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

, Mazeta and Montoya resolved to move the Christian Indians, about 15,000 in number, to the reductions in Paraguay, partly by water with the aid of seven hundred rafts and numberless canoes, and partly by land through the forest. The plan was successfully carried out in 1631. "This expedition", says von Ihering, "is one of the most extraordinary undertakings of this kind known in history" lobus, LX (1891), 179 In 1637 Montoya (on behalf of the governor, the Bishop of Paraguay, and the heads of the orders) laid a complaint before

Philip IV of Spain Philip IV (, ; 8 April 160517 September 1665), also called the Planet King (Spanish: ''Rey Planeta''), was King of Spain from 1621 to his death and (as Philip III) King of Portugal from 1621 to 1640. Philip is remembered for his patronage of the ...

as to the Portuguese policy of sending kidnapping expeditions into the neighboring regions. He obtained from the king important exemptions, privileges, and protective measures for the reductions of Paraguay. Soon after his return to America, Montoya died in Lima, Peru, on 11 April 1652.

Works

Ruiz de Montoya was a scholar of the

Guaraní language Guarani (Avañe'ẽ), also called Paraguayan Guarani, is a language of South America that belongs to the Tupi–Guarani branch of the Tupian language family. It is one of the two official languages of Paraguay (along with Spanish), where i ...

of the

Amerindians In the Americas, Indigenous peoples comprise the two continents' pre-Columbian inhabitants, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with them in the 15th century, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with the pre-Columbian population of ...

, and left standard works on it. These are: * (Madrid, 1639), a quarto of 407 pages *(Madrid, 1639). A new edition was made at Bilbao: Corazón de Jesús (1892). * (Madrid, 1640), a quarto of 234 pages * (Madrid, 1640), a quarto of 336 pages *(1640), unedited in Montoya's times, the first edition was made in 1991 by the Pontifical Catholic University of Lima. Recently a new transcription has been edited of the original manuscript found in Lilly's Library: Juan Dejo, , Lima, UARM-BNP, 2018. Vol. 2. Marion Mulhall calls Ruiz de Montoya's grammar and vocabulary "a lasting memorial of his industry and learning". German linguist

Georg von der Gabelentz Georg von der Gabelentz (16 March 1840 – 11 December 1893) was a German general linguist and sinologist. His (1881), according to a critic, "remains until today recognized as probably the finest overall grammatical survey of the Classical Chine ...

regarded them as the very best sources for the study of the Guaraní language, while Hervas declares that the clearness and comprehensive grasp of the rules to which Montoya traced back the complicated structure and pronunciation of Guaraní are most extraordinary. All three works were repeatedly republished and revised. In 1876

Julius Platzmann Karl Julius Platzmann (born 31 January 1832 in Leipzig; died 6 September 1902 in Leipzig) was a German botanist, artist and bibliophile who published exact facsimile editions of rare early missionary grammars of indigenous languages of the Americ ...

, the German scholar in Native American languages, issued at Leipzig an exact reprint of the first Madrid edition of this work "unique among the grammars and dictionaries of the American languages". A Latin version was edited by the German scholar at Stuttgart in 1890-91. A collected edition of all Montoya's works was published at Vienna under the supervision of the Vicomte de Porto Seguro in 1876. Of much importance as one of the oldest authorities for the history of the Reductions of Paraguay is Montoya's work, (Madrid, 1639), in quarto; a new edition was issued at Bilbao in 1892. In addition to the works already mentioned Montoya wrote a number of

ascetic Asceticism is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from worldly pleasures through self-discipline, self-imposed poverty, and simple living, often for the purpose of pursuing spiritual goals. Ascetics may withdraw from the world for their pra ...

al treatises. Letters and various literary remains of Ruiz de Montoya are to be found in the , XVI (Madrid, 1862), 57 sqq.; in (Antwerp, 1600), and in the (Buenos Aires, 1867), I, appendix; II, 216-252; cf. Backer-

Sommervogel Carlos Sommervogel (8 January 1834 – 4 March 1902) was a French Jesuit scholar. He was author of the monumental ''Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus'', which served as one of the major references for the editors of the Catholic Encyclo ...

, , VI, 1675 sqq.

Bibliography

*, (Freiburg 1891), 84 sqq. *Montoya, (

Bilbao Bilbao is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the Provinces of Spain, province of Biscay and in the Basque Country (greater region), Basque Country as a whole. It is also the largest city proper in northern Spain. Bilbao is the List o ...

), *, (Lima, 1882), 61 sqq. *Francisco Xarque, (Saragossa, 1662); there is another edition from Spain: Victoriano Suárez (1900) *Alonso López de Andrade, (Madrid, 1666) *

, (Leipzig, 1876), s. vv. Guarani and Ruiz; * Marion Mulhall, ''Between the Amazon and Andes'' (London, 1881), 248 sqq. *''Revista Peruana'', IV, 119. *José Luis Rouillon, S.J. , Lima, PUCP, 1991 *Juan Dejo, S.J. . Lima, UARM-BNP, 2018. Two volumes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Montoya, Antonio Ruiz de 1585 births 1652 deaths Clergy from Lima Peruvian people of Spanish descent Peruvian Roman Catholic missionaries Jesuit missionaries in Paraguay 17th-century Peruvian Jesuits Linguists from Peru Linguists from Paraguay Guarani-language writers Viceroyalty of Peru Missionary linguists 17th-century linguists