imported>Asuka Langley Shikinami: Removed inconclusive reference. Copyediting.

2025-07-01T09:31:48Z

Removed inconclusive reference. Copyediting.

New page

{{short description|16th century Spanish friar}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| name = Juan Pérez
| title = [[Order of Friars Minor|O.F.M.]]
| caption = ''Father Perez Blesses Columbus Before He Embarks'' by [[Luigi Gregori]], {{circa|1883}} ([[Columbus Murals]] at the [[University of Notre Dame]])
| image = Columbus Murals Father Perez Blesses Columbus.jpg
| death_date = {{circa|1513}}
| religion = [[Roman Catholic]]
}}

'''Juan Pérez, [[Order of Friars Minor|OFM]]''', (died before 1513) was a [[Spanish people|Spanish]] [[friar]] of the [[Order of Friars Minor|OFM]] and a companion of [[Christopher Columbus]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.franciscans.org/index.php/en/who/conv-franc/history |title= "Our History" |access-date=2012-10-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120922034546/http://www.franciscans.org/index.php/en/who/conv-franc/history |archive-date=2012-09-22 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Life==
At one time, Pérez held the office of ''contador'' (accountant) to the Queen of Spain, showing he was of noble family. Later, he entered the Franciscan Order, and [[Isabella I of Castile|Queen Isabella]] chose him for her [[confessor]].

Finding court life distracting, he asked permission to retire to his [[friary]]. Soon after, he was elected [[custos (Franciscans)|guardian]] of the [[La Rábida Friary|friary in La Rábida]], near [[Palos de la Frontera|Palos]] in [[Andalusia]]. Father [[Francisco Gonzaga]], [[Minister General]] of the Observant branch of the Order (1579–87), declared that La Rábida belonged to the Franciscan Custody of [[Seville]], which, by decree of [[Pope Alexander VI]] on 21 September 1500, was raised to the rank of a [[ecclesiastical province|province]].

Here, Christopher Columbus, in 1484 or 1485, made the acquaintance of Pérez. Friar [[Antonio de Marchena]], a [[cosmographer]] of some note, also lived there, and in him the navigator discovered a man bent on the project of discovering a new world. The historian [[Francisco López de Gómara]] in 1552 seems to have started the blunder, copied by almost every subsequent writer on the subject, of making the two names Perez and Marchena serve to describe one and the same person by speaking of the Father Guardian of La Rábida as Friar Juan Perez de Marchena.<ref>[[Charles Warren Currier]], ''History of Religious Orders'' (1894), p. 661.</ref>

[[File:Christopher Columbus Explaining His Intended Voyage.png|thumb|''[[Christopher Columbus Explaining His Intended Voyage]]'' by [[David Wilkie (artist)|David Wilkie]], 1834]]
Both friars materially assisted Columbus, who acknowledges his obligation in one of his letters to the king and queen. He writes that everybody ridiculed him, save two friars who always remained faithful. [[Martín Fernández de Navarrete]], indeed, claims that Columbus in this passage spoke of Pérez, the Franciscan, and [[Diego de Deza]], the [[Dominican Order|Dominican]].<ref>As the latter was [[Bishop of Palencia]] when the navigator wrote his letter, and Columbus on all other occasions speaks of him as Bishop of Palencia, or Lord Bishop, it would seem strange that in this one instance he should omit the title. Deza aided Columbus to the best of his ability among the scientists of Salamanca; but he could not prevent the adverse decision of the Spanish Court.</ref>

It was Pérez who persuaded the navigator not to leave Spain without consulting Isabella, when, footsore and dispirited, he arrived at La Rábida, determined to submit his plan to the King of France. At the invitation of the queen, Pérez made a journey to [[Santa Fe, Catalonia|Santa Fe]] for a personal interview with her. As a result, Columbus was recalled, and with the assistance of [[Cardinal Mendoza]] and others, his demands were finally granted.

When the navigator at last, on 3 August 1492, set sail in the ''[[Santa María (ship)|Santa María]]'', Pérez blessed him and his fleet. Some writers assert that Pérez accompanied Columbus on the first voyage, but the silence of Columbus on this point renders the claim improbable. It appears certain, however, that Pérez joined his friend on the second voyage in 1493. The earliest and best writers also agree that when the second expedition reached [[Hispaniola]], Pérez celebrated the first [[mass (liturgy)|Mass]] in the New World at Point Conception on 8 December 1493, in a temporary structure; that this was the first church in America; and that Pérez preserved the [[Blessed Sacrament]] there.

==References==
{{reflist}}

;Attribution
* {{Catholic|wstitle=Juan Perez}} The entry cites:
** GONZAGA, De Origine Seraphicœ Religionis Franciscanœ, II (Rome, 1587);
** LAS CASAS, Historia de las Indias (Madrid, 1875);
** DAZA, Cronica General (Valladolid, 1611);
** OLMO, Arbol Serafico (Barcelona, 1703);
** MELENDEZ, Tesoros Verdaderos de las Indies (Rome, 1681);
** HAROLD, Epitome Annalium Ordinis Minorum (Rome, 1662);
** COLL, Colón y La Rábida (Madrid, 1892);
** IRVING, Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (New York, 1868);
** TARDUCCI, Life of Christopher Columbus, tr. BROWNSON (Detroit, 1891);
** CIVEZZA, Storia Universale, V (Rome, 1861);
** CLARKE, Old and New Lights on Columbus (New York, 1893)

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perez, Juan}}
[[Category:Conventual Friars Minor]]
[[Category:15th-century Spanish Roman Catholic priests]]
[[Category:People from New Spain]]
[[Category:Franciscan missionaries]]
[[Category:Isabella I of Castile]]

Juan Pérez (friar) - Revision history

imported>Asuka Langley Shikinami: Removed inconclusive reference. Copyediting.