The Life and Martyrdom of the Father Diego Luis De San Vitores, S.J.

The Life and Martyrdom of Diego Luis de San Vitores, S.J.is a collection of official and unofficial letters and documents in addition to testimonies collected shortly after the death of Diego Luis de San Vitores, S.J., the Jesuit priest who established the Catholic religion in the island of Guam in the late 1600s. This book captures both the life and events surrounding the death of San Vitores and a narrative of subsequent events in the Mariana Islands from 1672 to 1681. The scope of the book includes not just the four brief years of San Vitores' time in Guam, but another ten years of missionary work following his death. It offers a detailed description of the early critical years of mission activity between 1668 and 1682 in this earliest of mission fields in Oceania.

About the Author :
Francisco García, S.J. (Author)
Francisco García, S.J., (1641-1685) entered the Society of Jesus on April 9, 1658. After completing his studies, he was appointed twice as rector of the novitiate in Madrid, where he died. García preached some popular missions in Spain, but he excelled as a writer of the lives of saints, such as the hagiography of Father General Francisco Borja (Alcala, 1671); Fathers Luis de Medina (Madrid, 1673); Saint Francis Xavier (Madrid, 1676); Saint Ignatius Loyola (Madrid, 1685), and Diego Luis de San Vitores (Madrid, 1683). His baroque style was elegant, containing much information on historical data about Jesuit missions in the Far East. He was called to write the first historical text about the Mariana Islands. During many years, provincial procurators regularly brought him annual letters, reports, and detailed descriptions of the archipelago. However, his sudden death left the Jesuits with no other alternative than assigning French Jesuit Charles Le Gobien to authoring the text.
James A. McDonough, S.J. (Editor)
James A. McDonough, S.J. received a doctorate in Classical Philology from Harvard University (1953). He published two critical editions of works by Gregory of Nyssa under the auspices of the Harvard Institute for Classical Studies in the Netherlands: Inscriptiones Psalmorum Brill (1962) and Contra Fatum Brill (1987). He was a distinguished professor of languages and literature as well as an administrator at the University of Guam from 1969-1994 when he retired and shortly thereafter was given Emeritus status. McDonough returned to the classroom for special courses and completed his teaching career at the end of the semester in which he celebrated his 90th birthday in 2001. With a gift for languages, he read widely and conferred an enthusiasm for learning. In addition, he was a Jesuit for over 70 years and brought his experiences to bear on his work. Through his efforts this description of Jesuit missionary efforts in Guam and the Marianas written from first-hand accounts by Francisco García, S.J. is presented in translation for the first time in one complete edition.


Review :
"Francisco Garcia's book is of a genre that has no modern equivalent. Although its title would seem to stamp it as a biography, the book might better be described as part history, part hagiography, part travel adventure, and part devotional literature. It is easy to understand why Garcia's biography was translated into English piecemeal. Three different translators extracted from the volume what corresponded to their own interests: Margaret M. Higgins selecting what touched on the local history and culture of the [CHamoru] people, Sr. Felicia Plaza excerpting those parts that touched directly on the life of San Vitores, and Fr. Juan Ledesma translating the remainder. Garcia's original was intended as a testimony to the saintliness of Diego Luis de San Vitores, the man who introduced the Christian faith to the Marianas. It was written as a tale of personal heroism, its hero the Jesuit missionary priest whose virtues were not allowed to speak for themselves but were authenticated by numerous instances of divine intervention […] As a historical source for this period Garcia's book is indispensable." (Introduction to Francisco Garcia's Life of Diego Luis de San Vitores)