St. Roque González y de Santa Cruz

Roque González de Santa Cruz, SJ (1576 – 15 November 1628) was a Guaraní -Spanish Jesuit priest who was a pioneer of the Jesuit missions among the Guaraní in Paraguay. He was murdered in 1628 and is venerated as a martyr and a saint by the Catholic Church.

Biography

González was born in the city of Asunción, then part of the Governorate of New Andalusia, in 1576; his exact birth date is not documented. His father, Bartolomé González de Villaverde, was a Spaniard who joined Pedro de Mendoza’s expedition and later served as royal notary in Asunción. His mother, María de Santa Cruz, was from Asunción and had Spanish and Guaraní ancestry.

Due to the large native population in the region, he spoke Guaraní fluently from an early age, as well as his native Spanish.

In 1598 González was ordained a priest by Bishop Fernando Trexo y Senabria of Córdoba, to serve that diocese. In 1609 he became a member of the Society of Jesus, and worked in the missions among the Guaraní. From 1626 he extended the mission settlements into what is now Rio Grande do Sul in southern Brazil.

González' arrival in the area happened only after his developing delicate relationships of trust with local indigenous leaders, some of whom feared that the priests were preparing the way for the arrival of masses of Spanish colonists in their land.

By late 1611 González was working at San Ignacio Guazú, where he helped develop the mission settlement. In 1615 he founded Itapúa, which is now the City of Posadas in the Argentine Province of Misiones. Then he had to move the reduction to the other side of the river, now the site of the City of Encarnación.

He also founded the reductions of Concepción de la Sierra Candelaria (1619), Candelaria (1627), San Javier, Yapeyú (now in the Province of Corrientes ), San Nicolás, Asunción del Ijuí, and Caaró (now in Brazil). In the region of Iyuí, he had difficulties with the local chieftain and sorcerer (cacique ) Nheçu (written Ñezú in Spanish), who opposed the missions.

On 15 November 1628, while preparing to oversee the installation of a new bell for the church at the Mission of Todos los Santos de Caaró, González was struck down and killed with a tomahawk, along with his fellow Jesuit, Alonso Rodríguez, upon the orders of Nheçu. After their deaths, their bodies were dragged into the church, which was set ablaze. Two days later, on 17 November, their colleague Juan del Castillo was also murdered by followers of Nheçu.

Veneration

González was beatified by Pope Pius XI on 28 January 1934. He and his companions were later canonized by Pope John Paul II in Asunción, thus becoming the first native of Paraguay to be declared a saint by the Catholic Church.

González has been named the patron saint of the cities of Posadas, Argentina, and Encarnación, Paraguay. Liturgically he is commemorated on 16 November, along with the other "Martyrs of the Rio de la Plata ".