author
Juan Patricio Fernández
1661–1733
A Jesuit missionary and chronicler of colonial South America, he is best remembered for his vivid account of the Chiquitos missions in Paraguay. His writing preserves a detailed firsthand view of missionary life, cultural encounter, and the ambitions of the Jesuit world in the early 1700s.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in 1661 and dying in 1733, Juan Patricio Fernández was a Spanish Jesuit priest, missionary, and writer associated with the Jesuit province of Paraguay. He is chiefly known today for his historical writing on the missions among the Indigenous people known as the Chiquitos.
His best-known work, Relación historial de las misiones de indios chiquitos que en el Paraguay tienen los padres de la Compañía de Jesús, was published in Madrid in 1726. The book offers a long narrative of the Chiquitos missions and has remained an important source for readers interested in Jesuit activity, colonial society, and the history of evangelization in South America.
Because so much of his reputation rests on this one substantial work, Fernández is often remembered less as a literary stylist than as a witness to a particular place and time. For modern listeners, his writing opens a window onto the religious and political world of the Spanish colonial frontier.