QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:
Home | Help | Feedback | Subscriptions | Archive | Search | Table of Contents

This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Mallios, S. Search for Related Content

The Apotheosis of Ajacan's Jesuit Missionaries

San Diego State University

Historical narratives describing the demise of a sixteenth-century Jesuit mission on the Chesapeake grew from direct accounts of indigenous murder to elaborate constructions of the missionaries' divine sacrifice. A seriation of details from the seven contemporary Jesuit sources demonstrates how and when Father Juan Baptista de Segura and his brethren came to be celebrated as martyrs. Once apotheosized, the Ajacan Jesuits' mythic stature grew despite historically established contradictions. Seemingly analogous martyrdoms, the anticipated self-sacrifice of Segura and his cadre, the individual and corporate benefits of divine forfeiture for clerics like the Jesuits, and parallels between biblical narratives and the sequence of events at the short-lived Chesapeake settlement led to an ecclesiastic apotheosis of the Ajacan missionaries.