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Fernando Trejo Y Sanabria, O.F.M

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Guillermo Furlong S.J.
Guillermo Furlong S.J.*
Affiliation:
University of Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina
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Extract

From the Early Days of the conquest of the River Plate up to our times, there have been numerous religious of the Order of St. Francis who have occupied episcopal sees in what is today the Argentine Republic, but not one of them has filled such glorious pages of the history of this country as Fray Fernando Trejo y Sanabria. Only one has come close to imitating his intense and extraordinary labors, and that was Fray Martín Ignacio de Loyola, Bishop of Asunción del Paraguay between 1602 and 1606, an epoch when all the Argentine coastland belonged to the Asunción Diocese.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , October 1952 , pp. 169 - 176
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1952

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References

1 It is not definitely proved that he was born in 1552, but in May, 1592, he repeatedly affirmed that he was then forty years of age, which would show that he was born at that time. In the declaration made by him in Lima on May 16, 1592, when he presented a report on the life and habits of the beneficiary of Guamanga, Pedro de Rojas, Trejo says in referring to his personal circumstances that he is “forty years of age,” a statement which agrees absolutely with that given in the report concerning the merits of Doctor Juan de la Roca, on May 14, 1592, in which “he said he was forty years of age,” which removes the possibility of there being in these declarations any carelessness or error. (See Archivo General de Indias, 70. 6. 20, quoted by Luis Antonio Eguigurren, Diccionario Histórico-cronológico de la Real y Pontificia Universidad de San Marcos y sus colegios (Lima, 1940), I, 235, quoted by Dr.Paz, Enrique Martínez, El Nacimiento del Obispo Trejo y Sanabria, fundador de la Universidad (Cordoba, 1946), p. 33.Google Scholar

2 They were Fray Juan de Barrios, the first Bishop of Paraguay, who tried to reach his see (1550) but could not; Fray Pedro Fernández de la Torre, successor to Barrios, in Asunción (1555–1573); Fray Martín Ignacio de Loyola, seventh Bishop of Asunción (1602–1606); Fray Gabriel de Arregui, fifth Bishop of Buenos Aires (1713–1717); Fray Juan de Arregui, seventh of Buenos Aires and brother of the last named (1730–1736); Fray Sebastián de Malvar y Pinto, thirteenth Bishop of Buenos Aires (1778–1784); Fray Mamerto Esquiú, twenty-second Bishop of Córdoba (1880–1883); Fray Juan Capistrano Tissera, who succeeded the former (1884–1885); Fray Zenón Bustos, twenty-fifth Bishop of Córdoba (1905–1925); Fray Buenaventura Rizo Patrón, second Bishop of Salta (1861–1887); Fray Nicolás Aldazor, third Bishop of Cuyo (1859–1866); Fray José Wenceslao Achaval, fourth Bishop of Cuyo (1868–1898), and Fray José Maria Bottaro, twenty-second Bishop of Buenos Aires, and Archbishop of the same see (1926–1935). Trejo was Bishop of Tucumán (1592–1614).

3 He was the founder of the University of Alcalá and to his efforts are due the composition and publication of the Biblia Políglota complutense. With the publication and nature of this magnum opus we deal in our monograph on “La Biblia Políglota del Cardenal Cisneros–1517–1917” in Estudios, Revista de la Academia del Plata, of Buenos Aires, XIII (1917), 321.

4 Although the principal Argentine cities were founded in the second half of the sixteenth century—Tucumán in 1550, Santiago del Estero in 1553, Córdoba in 1573, Santa Fé in the same year, 1573, and Buenos Aires in 1580, it was in the last two decades of the sixteenth century and first two of the seventeenth that colonization began to take effect in the River Plate.

5 Hernando Arias de Saavedra is indisputably one of the greatest rulers there have been in Spanish America prior to 1810. His prestige and his glory grow increasingly, especially since Doctor Raúl Molina, A. published the magnificent and well-documented study on Hernandarias—El Hijo de la Tierra (Buenos Aires, 1949) In the discourse.Google Scholar

6 It was in 1616 that the vast regions of the River Plate were divided into two provinces: that of Paraguay, or Guayrá, whose capital was Asunción, and that of the Rio de la Plata, or Buenos Aires, whose capital was the city of the same name.

7 This functionary, attorney general of the Audiencia of Panamá since 1594, was chosen by the king in 1605 as Visitor General of the River Plate provinces, Tucumán, Paraguay and Buenos Aires, and it was he who dictated the wise Ordenanzas on the way of treating the Indians, which were incorporated in the laws of the Indies. He is the author of a celebrated Tractatus de Officio Fiscalis, published in 1780, a long time after his death. Son of this magistrate and born in Panama was Father Diego de Alfaro, who was one of the great Jesuit missionaries in Paraguay.

8 In our monograph on the Orígenes de la Imprenta en América, especialmente en el Río de la Plata (Buenos Aires, 1947), pp. 51–53, we explained how Esteban Martín set out for Rio de la Plata, as may be seen in Pasajeros a Indias (Seville, 1942), p. 114, but we suppose that it was due to the influence of Zumárraga, without being able to prove it by documentation, that he proceeded to Mexico in the company of the same.

9 See Cuevas, Mariano, Cartas y otros documentos, descubiertos en el Archivo de Indias (Seville, 1915), p. 65.Google Scholar

10 See what was written by Father Diego de Torres, provincial of the Jesuits, in the Cartas Anuas of 1613, signed by him on April 8, 1614: “Invitatus enim ad nostram domum inter comedendum contemplatur tot in terris degentes angelos, quot mensis accumbebant Noviciorum. Cumque optime nosset nullos esse huius domus redditus, et tamen facile ali supra triginta, optima inquit, secum ipse haec omnia reputans, urbs haec atque accomoda ad Collegium Societatis erigendum, prostudiis: quippe quae frugum abundans satis; coelo nin iniqua aedificiis non parum apta. Si aliqui adderentur redditus, nullo quidem negocio studia hic omnia possint collocari. Ergo sub mensam concilium mecum suum communicat. Academiam studiorum cogitat nostrorum e suis redditibus annuis mille ac quingentos attribuit nummos. Num respuo, quin approbo consilium, et currentem calcaribus ago. A Deo Domino immissam exoptatamque mihi occasionem firmam constituendi Provinciam avido arripio animo, id diu meditatus.” Further on he writes: “De nostrorum studiosi, hujusque Colegii fundatoris Episcopi obitu non nihil tuae Paternitati elargiar,” and he recalls how “in tota hac Provincia, utpote fundatori et sacrificiis et precibus fuimus suffragati solitis. (Sacellum ducenti nummorum pretio aliquibus auctum est, et duabus altera Deiparae, altera B. P. Ignatii additum).” Documentos para la Historia Argentina. Tomo XIX. Iglesia, Cartas Annas de la Provincia del Paraguay, Chile y Tucumán, de la Compañía de Jesús (1609–1614). Con introducción del P. Carlos Leonhardt, S.J. (Buenos Aires, 1927, pp. 418–419.

11 We are not unaware that since 1612 the Jesuits tried to obtain the privilege of granting university degrees in their principal colleges, which had become universities, but they obtained nothing until 1622. See Gracia, Joaquín, Los Jesuitas en Córdoba (Buenos Aires, 1940), pp. 200–205.Google Scholar