By Thea Jarvis

Bishop Raymond Lessard of Savannah recently named a commission to study the possible martyrdom of five Franciscans who died during the Spanish mission period in the coastal region of south Georgia.

The establishment of such a commission is the first step in the long process that could culminate in the Church’s official beatification and canonization of the friars, who worked among the Guale (pronounced Wallie) Indians in the late 16^th century.

Chairman of the newly formed commission is Franciscan Father Francisco Morales, vice-director of the Academy of American Franciscan History in Washington, D.C.

Local historians appointed to serve with Father Morales are Dr. Edward Cashin, chairman of the History Department at Augusta College, and Dr. F. Lamar Pearson, Professor of History at Valdosta State College.

In telephone interviews with The Georgia Bulletin, both men indicated their pleasure at being involved in such an enterprise.

“This is right in my field,” said Professor Pearson, whose work has focused on the Spanish borderlands from Virginia to California and whose doctoral dissertation explored relations between the Spanish and the Indians.

Pearson, a Methodist who, over the years, has had the opportunity to work closely with Catholic scholars, always “had the feeling these people (the missionaries) were unusual, martyred for a cause,” and had been fascinated by the role of the missionary in history.

Professor Cashin, whose brother, Dan, is a member of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Atlanta, has long been interested in the history of the Catholic Church in Georgia. His family has been a presence in the church in south Georgia for many years.

Cashin feels the job of the commission “is to find out the historical circumstances of the deaths of the men; to make sure of what the reasons were.”

Those reasons could include the possibility that the priests acted as agents of the Spanish government, or that their deaths were accidental, or a result of their abuse of the Indian population, Cashin indicated, as well as the contention that they were martyred for their faith.

Commission members are in no hurry to come to final conclusions about the subjects of their inquiry, but expect to work at “a leisurely pace,” with no deadline, Professor Cashin said.

The current archeological dig being conducted by New York’s American Museum of Natural History on St. Catherine’s Island, where two of the Franciscans died, has been a fortuitous coincidence. Both Doctors Pearson and Cashin have been notified that artifacts and findings unearthed at the dig will be made available to them by museum staff members. Such teamwork will, no doubt, enhance the Church investigation.

Missionaries From Spain

Members of the Franciscan community who labored in the Spanish settlements of Florida and the Georgia coast came to the area during the second wave of missionary efforts that were heartily supported by the Catholic King Phillip II of Spain. Jesuits had preceded the Franciscans but had met with little sustained success in introducing the Indians to the Christian God.

Although precise dates and mission locations vary in differing historical accounts, it is generally acknowledged that a mission was established at the important Guale Indian village of Tolomato, near present day Darien, just north of Brunswick, around 1595. It was called, according to Franciscan documents, Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe de Tolomato.

Sub-missions served by the Franciscan order included the already mentioned site on St. Catherine’s Island, Santa Catalina de Guale, as well as Santa Clara de Tupiqui, on Domingo de Asao, on St. Simon’s Island.

Another mission, which was extant at the time but did not figure in the Franciscan deaths, was located on Jekyll Island, according to some records.

The missionaries evidently had made progress in converting the Guale to Christianity, for many were baptized after giving over certain practices at odds with Christian beliefs, including polygamy.

The Indian revolt which took the lives of the five missionaries within just a few days appears in most accounts of the period.

Among the Guale, the village chieftain, or “mico,” was overseen by the “mico mayer,” or head chief of all local mico leaders, Juanillo, son of the Tolomato mico, was in line to become the mico mayer of that area. But, according to Franciscan documents, the young Jaunillo lapsed into the polygamy that the friars had sought to abolish among their Christian converts.

Father Pedro de Corpa, born in Villabilla, Spain, had come to Florida in 1587 and traveled on to coastal Georgia with others of his order. He was in charge of the Tolomato mission and reacted strongly to Juanillo’s defiance of Christian standards.

De Corpa intervened with the Guale leadership at Tolomato and Juanillo was deprived of the mico mayer position. Enraged at the missionary’s interference, Juanillo and a band of warriors left the village and hid in the woods, returning to kill Father de Corpa while the priest was at prayer.

Following the attack, Juanillo and his followers moved on to the sub-mission stations where they wrought destruction and death on the other Franciscans.

Remaining on the mainland, they moved north to the Santa Clara mission, near present day Eulonia. Here, Father Blas de Rodriguez, superior of all the Guale missions and a native of Cuacos, Spain, who had come to Florida shortly after his ordination, around 1580, was confronted by the rebel Indians.

The priest who had begun the work of conversion among the Guale was killed, like his brother Franciscan, with a stone hatchet or tomahawk.

Island Attacks

The revolt then spread eastward to St. Catherine’s Island, where today the mission of Santa Catalina is undergoing intense archeological scrutiny. Father Miguel de Anon of Zaragoza, Spain, had founded the mission around 1595, assisted by the aged Brother Antonio de Badajoz, who served as his interpreter among the Indians.

Franciscan accounts report that the local chief on St. Catherine’s was sent a message directing him to kill the two Franciscans, but the mico was opposed to such violence. Juanillo and the insurgents then made their appearance on the island and killed the friars themselves.

To the south, on St. Simon’s Island, the imposing Father Francisco de Berascola headed the mission. Father de Berascola had been born in the mountain region of Cantabria, Spain, and was a large and powerful man. Franciscan historians refer to him as “the Cantabrian giant.”

The priest had evidently made a great impression on the Indians of Asao, not only because of his physical appearance, but also because he presented Christian instruction in the native tongue, using an interpreter until he had himself mastered the language.

Despite this, de Berascola was murdered by the Indians on Asao upon his return from St. Augustine, Florida, where he had traveled to obtain supplies.

The date of the events which marked with sadness the Franciscan venture into the territory of the Guale is generally given as 1597. The Spanish eventually quashed the Juanillo revolt, rebuilt the mission, and held sway in coastal Georgia until the English challenged their presence.

In 1612, the superior of the Franciscan Custody of St. Helen of Florida and his councillors sent a report to the king of Spain which included the following declaration:

“Although the Indians did not martyr the friars for the faith (that is, because of any doctrine or article of faith which they preached), it is certain that they martyred them because of the law of God which the religious taught them. This is the reason the Indians themselves gave and still attest to…It is known in this land that, since the death of these holy religious, this people (the Guale Indians) has been docile and mild mannered.”

In 1686, most of the Spanish missions were abandoned due to the English influence, combined with tension between the missionaries and the Indians and the added spectre of pirate plunderings. The Battle of Bloody Marsh on St. Simon’s Island in 1742, in which English forces successfully routed the Spanish troops, brought an end to Spanish domination of the Georgia coast.

Conflicting Views

There are those who would take issue with the work of the missionaries among the Guale.

In his summary history, “St. Simon’s Island,” R. Edwin Green, a docent at the island’s Museum of Coastal History and a guide at the Fort Frederica National Monument, contends that the missionary efforts disrupted the Guale lifestyle and challenged the Indian identity.

“The friars brought Spanish and Christian customs and often pressed for conformity from the Indians who little understood them. The natives were at best considered wards with a ‘priest knows best’ attitude, and at worse were often treated more like slaves. A particular bitterness was encountered at Tolomato where Father Corpa had reproached the Indians harshly for disobeying his injunction that they should have only one wife,” Green observed.

Others, however, contend that the missionary made a valuable contribution to Indian life.

Professor Lamar Pearson calls the missionaries “a very positive influence” in the initial settlement of the New World, adding that “the overwhelming number were a credit to the faith.”

He further views the missionary in history as a buffer between the Indian and the soldiery of the foreign government, which frequently took advantage of the native population.

And in the specific instance of the five Franciscans who died in the Guale territory, supporters of the cause for beatification feel that the men were killed because they upheld the values of Christian marriage.

“Their heroic defense of the sacredness of Christian matrimony should be a source of strength and encouragement to those who in our day champion the observance of the Church’s ideals and laws of matrimony, the right to life, and the cause of family stability,” according to a pamphlet published by Franciscan Herald Press.

The future status of the friars whose blood stained the sandy soil of coastal Georgia will be determined in large part by the commission appointed by Bishop Lessard.

“We will operate like a jury,” Professor Edward Cashin said of the commission’s role, “to ascertain if the facts are correct.”

As history was made in the Spanish missions of the sixteenth century, so also will history be made in our time.