Priest Heroes of America’s First Evangelization

An excerpt from Men of Brave Heart, by The Most Rev. José H. Gomez, S.T.D., archbishop of San Antonio (OSV, release date is Sept. 1, 2009)

Father Antonio Margil, a Franciscan, is one of many nearly forgotten priest-heroes of America’s first evangelization. He was ordained in Spain at the age of 24, and left his home forever in 1683. He set sail for the New World because there, as he told his mother, “millions of souls are lost for want of priests to dispel the darkness of unbelief.”

For the next 43 years, Father Antonio roamed all over this continent, covering thousands of miles of uncharted territory. He walked barefoot and took with him only a walking stick, his breviary, and a small kit for saying Mass. He would travel forty or fifty miles a day this way. People called him “the Flying Padre.” He established churches in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Louisiana and Texas. Through his priestly ministry, the darkness of unbelief was dispelled and millions of souls came to know the life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ and his Gospel.

Father Antonio’s days were long, lonely, and filled with toil. Often he preached to large crowds in the evening, sometimes until past midnight; he rose early and spent the daytime hours teaching catechism, baptizing, hearing confessions, celebrating Mass, and supervising social and charitable works. He fasted and performed other penances for the sake of the souls he sought to win.

Often on his missionary sojourns he faced hostile bands of natives, and many times he just barely escaped death. Near the Guazamota River in Mexico Nayarits tribesman brandishing machetes confronted his missionary party. Another time he was almost burned at the stake. Another time still, he was tied to a tree and threatened by a firing squad of a dozen men armed with bows and arrows.

Yet his experiences are not unique. The missionary history of the Americas is filled with these kind of stories. I am thinking of the fruitful and heroic work of men like St. Isaac Jogues and St. John de Brébeuf and their priestly companions; St. Juan Macias; St. Roque González; the Franciscan missionaries martyred in what is now Georgia in 1597. The list could go on for pages. The seeds of the Gospel were sown in the New World with the blood of many priest-martyrs and the anonymous sweat and sacrifice of countless more.

What enabled these priests to endure thankless drudgery and hardships for years on end, to risk their lives to preach to and sacrifice for people — many of whom hated them and wished them dead? Certainly, these pioneers of the faith in America were motivated by their love for Jesus Christ and their belief that all people must hear his Gospel and “receive our holy Catholic faith for their eternal salvation.” That is how Father Eusebio Kino, the great Jesuit missionary of Arizona, put it in 1710.

But the question remains: What sustained these priests’ zeal in times of tedium, trial, or dejection? How did they avoid burning-out or keeping their ministries from becoming merely the performance of required duties? I believe it was their practice of the virtues, and in a special way, the virtue of fortitude, also known as courage. The missionary priests of America’s first evangelization were men trained and formed in such a way that they habitually exercised the three “theological” virtues of faith, hope, and love as well as the four “moral” virtues of prudence, temperance, justice, and fortitude.

Since the early days of the Church, these seven virtues have been understood as the “excellences” characteristic of the true disciple of Christ. Although unfortunately they are not enough known or taught today, the virtues remain the true measure of the Christian personality. The Church’s canonized saints are defined as those who practice the virtues to a “heroic” degree, cooperating with God’s grace. And as St. Paul often reminded the first Christians, all baptized believers are “called to be saints.” In other words, every Christian is called to lead a life animated by the virtues.

An excerpt from Men of Brave Heart, by The Most Rev. José H. Gomez, S.T.D., archbishop of San Antonio (OSV, release date is Sept. 1, 2009). Call 800-348-2440 to preorder.