Colonialism and holiness in the Mariana Islands: the blood of martyrs [1668-1676]

Abstract

In this article I analyze the conquest and colonization of the Marianas islands (1668-1676) as an example of the construction of the Catholic frontier in the Spanish possessions in the Pacific. One of the main objectives consists of analyzing martyrdom as one of the strategies used by the Jesuit missionaries to convert the Marianas islands to the Catholic faith. The first Jesuit martyrs −Diego Luis de San Vítores, Luis de Medina, and Sebastián de Monroy, SJ, among others− were elevated to the category of «distinguished heroes» of the Catholic Reformation who died as victims of the unbeatable barbarians in defence of Christian faith. Martyrdom, as longing and culmination of the missionary experience, turned those peripheral spaces into central points of reference wherein would end up rooting Christian dogma.