Roque González de Santa Cruz

Roque González de Santa Cruz (Asunción, Paraguay, November 17, 1576 - Caibaté, Brazil, November 15, 1628) was a Paraguayan Creole priest and martyr, founder of several missions and reductions Jesuits. He was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1988.

Work

At only 22 years old, he was ordained a priest by Hernando de Trejo y Sanabria, bishop of Córdoba, and some time later appointed parish priest of the Cathedral of Asunción by the Spanish bishop Martín Ignacio de Loyola, a relative of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. He carried out various apostolic activities and did not accept the position of vicar general of Asunción because he wanted to reach the indigenous people themselves to evangelize them.

In 1609 he abandoned his job as parish priest of Asunción and entered the Company of Jesus, beginning his work as an evangelizing missionary. On March 25, 1615 he founded the reduction of Our Lady of the Annunciation of Itapuá, which in 1621 was moved to the current Paraguayan city of Encarnación, in the department of Itapúa, of which it is the capital.

In 1619 he founded the reduction of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception (today Concepción de la Sierra) and in 1627 he founded the reduction of Our Lady of Candelaria, in Caazapaminí (current Brazilian territory). Afterwards he founded the reduction of San Javier on the coast of the Uruguay River. On that river he extended to the south, participating in the founding of the reduction of Yapeyú, in the current province of Corrientes (Argentina), which later acquired importance and extensive jurisdiction, where the military man José de San Martín (1778-1850) was born.).

From Yapeyú he left towards the interior of the south of present-day Brazil, founding the reductions of San Nicolás (today Sao Nicolau); Asunción del Iyuí and Caaró. Precisely in the Iyuí area, he had great differences with the chief Ñezú, and so on November 15, 1628, this reduction was destroyed and both Father Roque González de Santa Cruz and the Spanish Father Alonso Rodríguez Olmedo were murdered in Caaro. The same fate befell the Jesuit Juan del Castillo, also Spanish, who was murdered two days later, on November 17, 1628.

The bodies were thrown into the bonfire, but, as it is said, Roque's heart (which miraculously remained intact) spoke to them, making them see what they had done. His heart and the ax with which they had killed him were taken to Rome. They were brought back by Father Tomás Travi and, after a short period in Argentina, they were taken to the Chapel of the Martyrs (Colegio Cristo Rey) in Asunción, which is where they are currently located.

On January 28, 1934 he was beatified by Pope Pius held in Asunción, the Paraguayan capital, together with the martyrs and until then blessed Juan del Castillo and Alfonso Rodríguez Olmedo. He thus turned out to be the first Creole saint of the Río de la Plata.

San Roque González de Santa Cruz is considered the first founder of the current cities of Posadas, in Argentina, and Encarnación, in Paraguay, with a festival on November 15 and November 17 in Paraguay and Argentina, respectively. In addition, the bridge that connects these two cities is named after him in honor of his work and dedication to this River Plate region. There are also two Catholic schools on both banks of the Paraná River named after him.

The gigantic dam that feeds the Itaipú hydroelectric plant, on the border between Paraguay and Brazil, on the Paraná River, also bears his name, which was inaugurated on May 6, 1991, by the presidents Andrés Rodríguez of Paraguay. and Fernando Collor de Melo from Brazil. On that occasion, at the religious service, the first mass was heard in honor of Saint Roque de Santa Cruz, for soloists, choir and orchestra, whose author is the Paraguayan musician José Luis Miranda Fiori. Furthermore, today in the chapels of San Ignacio Guazu Paraguay there is a statue of him to remember him as the first saint of Paraguay.

In his honor, a city called Tavapy, located in the department of Paraguarí, southwest of Asunción, was renamed first as Beato Roque González de Santacruz, later being called San Roque González de Santa Cruz (Paraguay).