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FROM
THE VAL DI NON
TO
THE SONORAN DESERT
On February 14th 1965, in the "National Hall of
Statuary" in Washington D.C., the young State of Arizona, part of the
US since 1912, enjoyed a day of grand celebration. A statue of Eusebio
Francisco Kino, a pioneer founder of the State was dedicated in the
Capitol Building of the stars and stripes republic, next to those of the
most renowned personalities in the history of the United States of
America: George Washington, Samuel Adams, Sam Houston, Andrew Jackson.
"Explorer, Historian, Rancher, Mission builder and Apostle to the
Indians" states the inscription on the base to summarize an entire
life spent for God and for the Pima Indians.
Eusebio was born in Segno, in the Val di Non near Trent
on August 10th, 1645, son of Francesco
and Margherita. He was then
baptized in the church of Torra, a village close to Segno. After his
primary education he began his classical studies at the Jesuit High School
in Trent, completing them in Hall (Tyrol). There, he became seriously ill,
but he recovered miraculously through the intercession of St. Francis
Xavier. Then, deciding to enter the Society of Jesus, he vowed to dedicate
his life to the missions of India, following the previous example of his
cousin Martino Martini, another renowned son of Trent. In 1677, at
Eichstatt in Bavaria, he was ordained a priest . He completed his
preparation for the foreign missions in Spain at the Jesuit College in
Seville. Eventually on May 3, 1681, he arrived in Mexico (New Spain)
disembarking at the port of Vera Cruz after a three month voyage across
the Atlantic.
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At
this time Eusebio Francesco Chini was 36 years old. He reverted to the
German spelling of his name to avoid being misidentified as a Chinese
national. His skills as a mathematician and cartographer made him an ideal
candidate to join a new expedition to colonize the Californias. The
expedition finally failed, however, and Kino was reassigned to the
missions of the mainland. Then, on March 13, 1687 Padre Kino set out on
his life’s greatest adventure -- the evangelization of the heathen
people of the Pimería Alta, modern Sonora and Arizona. He concentrated
not only on their conversion but also on their economic, social and civil
development. His tireless efforts spanned over twenty-four years, until
his death in 1711. Padre Kino put his heart and soul into the many
missions he founded that are now thriving towns in the states of Sonora
and Arizona.
He
was at the same time a man of God and a defender of the Indians. Placed
between God and Creation, he was pioneer-explorer, historiographer,
cartographer, cowboy, rancher, and peacemaker. He taught the Indians how
to cultivate fruits and vegetables unknown in those lands; he introduced
cattle breeding, carpentry, and iron working. He valiantly protected the
dignity and interests of his Indian neophytes against the overbearing
schemes of the Spanish hacendados. Fearlessly, he enforced a royal decree
that exempted converted Indians from hard labor in the mines and from the
paying of tribute. He fashioned a whole new economy in the harsh,
sun-baked land. He conducted several expeditions to the northwest as far
as the Rio Colorado, providing scientific proof that California was indeed
a peninsula. Even a rough estimate of his desert travels with herds of
horses and cattle amounts to 12,800 km.! A truly gigantic enterprise,
whose fruits were souls led to God, a new life for the desert, and a
distinguished recognition of Indian dignity and worth.
He died at midnight, March 15, 1711, in the village of Magdalena.
He died as he had lived "in peace and poverty on the edge of
something even greater." Today Magdalena honors the memory of Padre Kino with a
pilgrimage that has included admirers from Sonora, Arizona, Sinaloa,
Chihuahua and the Californias for nearly three hundred years. Although the
pilgrims are nominally devoted to St. Francis Xavier, Kino’s own patron,
their zeal has transformed the devotion into a mutual homage to the
Apostle of the Indies and the Apostle of the Pimas. Xavier and Kino are
one in spirit.
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