Juan de Torquemada
A celebrated historian of early Mexico, Father Juan de Torquemada's first person interviews and written accounts of early forays into New Mexico by the Church and the Conquistadors stand today as a significant chronicle of those events.
In this portrait, he embodies the desired traits of a man both scholarly and godly. He served as Guardian of the convent of Tlotelolco and was elected Provincial of the Order of St. Francis in Mexico in 1614. The coarse robe and tonsure reflect the Franciscan devotion to service and poverty; the quill and books mark their dedication to learning.
The Order of St Francis, or Order of Friars Minor, was founded by Francis of Assisi in 1209. Over the next three centuries they became a major political force in the Roman Catholic Church, along with the Dominicans. Christopher Columbus carried a group of Franciscans to the New World on his first voyage, and they served as steadfast missionaries throughout Spanish-occupied lands.
Fray Juan de Torquemada is not to be confused with his namesake, the Dominican monk Tomas de Torquemada,
who became Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition in 1487.This portrait is taken from Lucas Aleman
's Historia de la Republica Mexicana (1860).Click on the image to return to Pious Padres