Saint Roque González de Santa Cruz

Life story

Roque González de Santa Cruz was born in 1576 in Asunción, Paraguay, into an influential Spanish family. He was ordained a priest around 1598 and worked at the cathedral of Asunción, where he came into contact with the Guaraní. In 1609 he entered the Society of Jesus.

He worked among the Guaraní and, with other Jesuits, founded the reducciones, mission settlements where the Guaraní lived together, farmed, learned trades and had a church. One of the settlements he founded was Concepción on the Uruguay river in 1620. He learned Guaraní and travelled through forest and river country to found new settlements in what are now Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil.

On 15 November 1628, in the village of Caaró in southern Brazil, he was killed with an axe while a church was being raised. Two Jesuit companions were killed in the same days: Alonso Rodríguez with him at Caaró, and Juan del Castillo two days later at Pirapó. According to the records, the killers were stirred up by a native leader who opposed the mission.

The three were beatified in 1934, and John Paul II canonised them on 16 May 1988 in Asunción. Roque was the first saint born in Paraguay. His work, together with that of his Jesuit colleagues, formed part of the reductions of the Guaraní, which lasted for about a century and a half before the Jesuits were expelled from the Spanish territories in 1767. His feast is kept on 17 November.

Works and witness

• Ordained around 1598, entered the Jesuits in 1609
• Founded many mission settlements for the Guaraní
• Founded Concepción on the Uruguay river in 1620
• Killed at Caaró on 15 November 1628
• Canonised in 1988

Saints from the same country

Saint José Gabriel del Rosario Brochero, Saint Francis Solano, Saint Dulce Lopes Pontes

References

• Martyrologium Romanum
• Dicastery for the Causes of Saints – biographical profile
• Acta Apostolicae Sedis

Written by Anawim from documented history. Some details about ancient saints rest on tradition and are marked as such.