Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam: The Spanish Jesuit Missionaries, 1570 - Stafford VA - Signs of History on Waymarking.com

Some of the first European settlers in the New World were Jesuit missionaries from Spain who arrived in the 1500s. An expedition arrived in Virginia in 1570 consisting of Fathers Segura and Quiros, six Jesuit brothers, and some Indian guides. They set up a residence and log chapel hoping to convert the natives. The next year, one of the Algonquian converts, Paquiquino renamed Don Luis, turned traitor and led a massacre against the Spanish mission.

There are conflicting accounts over the exact location of this lost settlement -- some historians place it near the Rappahannock River and others say it was closer to Jamestown, on the James River.

According to St. William of York Catholic Church's History, a monument to the Jesuit martyrs was found when the Aquia/Brent Cemetery was rediscovered in 1897. Today, there is a bronze plaque to the Spanish missionaries near the cemetery, although this is not the same aforementioned monument since the plaque shows that it was erected in 1935, almost 40 years after its rediscovery. The bronze plaque is mounted on a granite slab and reads:

AD MAIOREM DEI GLORIAM

THIS TABLET IS INSCRIBED
TO THE MEMORY OF THE HEROIC JESUIT
MISSIONARIES, WHO COMING FROM SPAIN
TO BRING CHRIST'S GOSPEL TO THE INDIANS
IN THIS AQUIA REGION, ERECTED NEARBY
IN 1570. A.D., THE FIRST CHRISTIAN TEMPLE
IN OUR NORTHERN LAND - OUR LADY OF
AJACAN, AND EXPRESSLY BECAUSE OF THEIR
CHRISTIAN TEACHINGS, WERE BY THE NATIVES
TREACHEROUSLY SLAIN: LUIS DE QUIROS,
PRIEST, BAPTISTA MENDEZ AND GABRIEL
DE SOLIS, SCHOLASTICS, FEBRUARY 4, 1571
JUAN BAPTISTA DE SEGURA, PRIEST,
CRISTOBAL REDONDO, SCHOLASTIC,
PEDRO LINARES, GABRIEL GOMEZ
AND SANCHO ZEBALLOS, BROTHERS,
FEBRUARY 9, 1571, ALL OF THE SOCIETY OF
JESUS WHO DIED JOYOUSLY, AS THEY
HAD LIVED AND LABORED NOBLY,
FOR THE GREATER GLORY OF GOD.

ERECTED BY THE CATHOLIC STUDENTS' MISSION CRUSADE AND
THEIR FRIENDS OF THE DIOCESE OF RICHMOND, FEAST OF
CHRIST THE KING, 1935.

References:

• The Spanish in the Chesapeake Bay
• Spanish martyrs for Virginia
• New River Notes: The Catholic Church in Virginia

Group that erected the marker: Catholic Students' Mission Crusade and their Friends Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary: Near the intersection of Rt. 1 and Telegraph Rd. Stafford, VA USA 22554 URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: Not listed

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