Sebastian de Castañeda

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Fray Sebastián de Castañeda , O.de M. (* around 1505 possibly in Segovia ; † probably before 1570 possibly in Huamanga ; wrongly also: Pedro de Trujillo y Castañeda ) was one of the first Spanish religious chaplains who, in the course of the wars of conquest of the 16th Century arrived in the Andean region. The founding of the Mercedarian convent in Cusco and the religious establishment in Huamanga are ascribed to him. In the 17th century, chroniclers of his order referred to the monk as the confessor of the conqueror Francisco Pizarro and gave him the addition of "de Trujillo" (the hometown of the Pizarros).

Life

The Mercedarian monk de Castañeda, as a youth, witnessed the uprising of the Comuneros in Segovia (1520–1522), the hometown of Pedrarias Dávilas , who became governor of Castilla de Oro (Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and Northern Colombia) from 1514. He too came to America and was already in Panama around 1524. It is not known whether there was a family connection to the licentiate Francisco de Castañeda, who became governor and administrator of the province of Nicaragua after the death of Pedraria Dávila.

He reached Peru around or before 1536, where, according to witnesses, he was the only monk in the city of Cusco, besieged by the Inca, in the "House of the Mercedarians".

In March 1537 he brought several batches of silver to the minting of the embattled city. In April, Diego de Almagro entered the city after fighting and negotiations with the Inca, whose government he now claimed. After an arbitration decision by the superior of the Mercedarians in America, Fray Francisco de Bobadilla , was rejected, fighting broke out between Pizarrists and Almagrists, which ended with Almagro's defeat at the Battle of Las Salinas (near Cusco) in April 1538 and his execution. In Cusco, Fray Juan de Vargas had been the director and administrator of the Mercedarian convent since February 1538 at the latest .

De Castañeda was appointed Comendador (Komtur, corresponds to prior, abbot) of the convent of Huamanga, founded in 1539. The city was founded in 1539 from the indigenous settlement of Quinua, then relocated in 1540. There the monk experienced the turmoil of the civil war in which the city on the main road from Lima to Cusco and Sucre was visited by troops and refugees from both parties. According to witnesses, the Mercedarians of this convent housed and advised the militants loyal to the king and gave them their money and valuables so that they would not fall into the hands of the rebels.

According to these statements, De Castañeda lived in Huamanga for "long years". Since there were initially no secular clergy there, he looked after the population with pastoral care and also undertook evangelization of the indigenous people in the area. It is not known how long he headed the Huamanga convent and whether he died in the city or possibly moved to another monastery in Spain.

Post-fame and legend building

  • In his chronicle, published as early as 1553, Cieza de León called "Fray Sebastián" the founder of the Mercedarian convents in Cusco and Huamanga.
  • The Mercedarian chronicler Fray Martín de Murúa mentions in his Historia y Genealogía de los Reyes Inca del Peru (1590) “six members of the order” who were “sent to conquer”, but gives no names or details.
  • According to the first officially appointed chronicler of the Mercedarians, Fray Alonso Remón , the conqueror Francisco Pizarro in Spain had, in addition to the patents of the king, also obtained a license from the Mercedarian general to take a number of Mercedarian monks with him on his third and ultimately successful foray into the Andean region . Among these was "fray Sebastian de Truxillo y Castañeda", whom Pizarro had chosen to be his confessor. However, he and the others stayed in Panama for the time being and only rushed to help with the siege of Cusco.
  • Remón's successor Fray Gabriel Téllez (known as a playwright under the pseudonym Tirso de Molina ) followed his portrayal.
  • The Peruvian monk Fray Pedro Ruiz Naharro also follows Remón's version.
  • Chronicler Marcos Salmerón mentions the patent but does not mention Fray Sebastian's name.
  • Felipe Colombo describes "Sebastian de Truxillo" as one of the two first preachers of the Gospel in the region; he was a cousin of the conqueror Pizarro.
  • In an order manual from 1992 it is said that Sebastián de Castañeda founded the convent in Cusco in 1534.

rating

When the chroniclers of the various orders undertook to reconstruct the expansion of their congregations into America in the 17th century, they paid particular attention to the early arrival of the monks in the respective region, their relationship to the competing conquerors and their loyalty to the crown. There is just as little contemporary evidence of a relationship between de Castañeda and the Pizarros as there is of the possibility that he traveled to Spain again after 1524 and then set off from there with Pizarro to Peru in 1529. In Spain at this time the General of the Mercedarian Order and the Castilian Order Province were arguing about responsibility for the expansion of the Order to and in America. The historian Muñoz considered the general's patent for Pizarro to be a forgery.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ According to his own statement in a witness interview from 1539, in: Victor Barriga: Los Mercedarios en el Peru 1 , Tip. Madre de Dios, Rome 1933, p. 221.
  2. ^ So witnesses in a survey of 1564, in: Victor Barriga: Los Mercedarios en el Peru 1 , Tip. Madre de Dios, Rome 1933, pp.147,151,155.
  3. ↑ Victor Barriga: Los Mercedarios en el Peru 2 , La Colmena, Arequipa 1939, p. 66.
  4. ↑ Eudoxio de Jesus Palacio (1945): Provinciales del Cuzco de la Orden mercedaria (1556-1944) , Instituto Historico de la Orden de la Merced (ed.), Rome 1999, p. 11.
  5. ↑ Victor Barriga: Los Mercedarios en el Peru 1 , tip. Madre de Dios, Rome 1933, p.162, 165.
  6. ↑ See his statement from 1555, in: Victor Barriga, Los Mercedarios en el Peru 1 , Tip. Madre de Dios, Rome 1933, pp. 257-262.
  7. ↑ Statements in: Victor Barriga: Los Mercedarios en el Peru 1 , p. 168.
  8. ↑ See the statements from 1570, in: Victor Barriga, Los Mercedarios en el Peru 1 , Tip. Madre de Dios, Rome 1933, pp. 165,169.
  9. ↑ Cieza de Leon (1553) / Sáenz de Santa Maria (Ed.): Descubrimiento y conquista del Peru. (= Cronicas de America 17), Ed. Historia 16, Madrid 1986, p. 144.
  10. ↑ Martin de Murúa (Ms.1590): Historia y Genealogia de los reyes ingas del Pirú , Testimonio, Madrid 2004, fol. 8r./S.77.
  11. ↑ Alonso Rémon: Historia General de la Orden de Nuestra Señora de la Merced Redención de Cautivos… 1 , Luis Sánchez Empresa del Reyno, Madrid 1618, fol. 143r.
  12. ↑ Tirso de Molina [= Fray Gabriel Téllez] (Ms.1636): Historia general de la orden de nuestra Señora de las Mercedes 1 (1218-1567) , Manuel Penodo Rey (ed.), Provincia de la Merced de Castilla, Madrid 1973, p. 463.
  13. ↑ Pedro Ruiz Naharro (Lima 1646) in: Pedro José Pidal / Miguel Salvá (eds.): Documentos inéditos para la historia de Espana, Vol.26,1 , Madrid 1855, p. 238.
  14. ↑ Marcos Salmerón: Recuerdos historicos y politicos de los servicios que los generales, y varones ilustres de la Religón de Nuestra Señora de la Merced, Redención de Cautivos, han hecho a los reyes de España ... , Nogues, Valencia 1646, fol. 283.
  15. ↑ Felipe Colombo: El Job de la ley de gracia ... , Imprenta Real, Madrid 1674, p. 26.
  16. ↑ Instituto Historico de la Orden de la Merced (ed.): La Orden de Santa Maria de la Merced (1218-1992). Síntesis Histórica. Rome 1992, p. 54.
  17. ↑ Real Academia de la Historia: Colección Muñoz , 9/4840, fol. 142rv.
personal data
SURNAME Castañeda, Sebastián de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Trujillo y Castañeda, Pedro (wrong name form)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Convention founder
DATE OF BIRTH around 1505
PLACE OF BIRTH unsure: Segovia
DATE OF DEATH before 1570
Place of death unsure: Huamanga