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| You are in: Museum of History >> Hall of North and South Americans >> Reginaldo de Lizarraga | |
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LIZARRAGA, Reginaldo de (lee-thar'-rah-gah), R. C. bishop, born in Biscay, Spain, in 1545; died in Asunción, Paraguay, in 1615. He went with his parents to Quito, studied theology in Lima, entering the novitiate of the Dominicans in 1560. After his profession he was sent to the university. He was ordained priest and at once appointed superior of a convent.
In 1586, while prior of the convent of Lima, he was elected provincial of Chile. As soon as he arrived in Chile he wrote to the king of Spain for missionaries, and his request was answered by the despatch of a large number of Dominicans to the New World, who were sent among the Indians. He went himself among the fiercest of the natives, whom the Spaniards had never conquered, and was treated with the greatest respect.
In 1590 he returned to Perú, and on his arrival in Lima was installed master of novices in the convent of San Rosario. In 1596 he was appointed bishop of Villa Imperial, in the south of Chile. Shortly after he reached his episcopal see it was besieged by the Araucauians. His conduct during this incident has been variously treated by Spanish historians. Some say that he deserted his flock, while others insist that his departure from the city during the siege was owing to his desire to protect the nuns, who accompanied him in his flight.
After the destruction of Villa Imperial he transferred his episcopal see to Concepción. In 1607 he was nominated bishop of Asunción, in Paraguay. He made vain efforts to protect the Indians, and was so affected one day at the sight of the barbarous treatment inflicted upon some of them that he never recovered from the shock.
Lizarraga was an able writer and eloquent preacher. He left three volumes of sermons in folio. He wrote also "De la Descripción y Población de las Indias." His principal works, however, are his exposition of the five books of the Pentateuch, and the concordance of those different texts of the Scriptures the sense of which appears to be contradictory.
Edited Appletons Encyclopedia by John Looby, Copyright © 2001 VirtualologyTM