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Fray Pedro de Corpa |
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Fray Pedro de Corpa |
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Father Pedro de Corpa was born in the tiny village of Corpa near
Villabilla in the diocese of Madrid-Alcalá, probably around 1560. A
Franciscan priest of the province of Castile, he was already known as preacher and confessor when he came to Spanish Florida in 1587.
After brief service in the area of St. Augustine, he was sent north to the
mission at the important Guale village of Tolomato, near modern
Darien, Georgia.
With the exception of the few Christian missions along the coast, the Guale country was governed by its own religious customs. It was here at Tolomato that tribal custom and Christian marriage doctrine would come into sharp conflict. The practice of the missionaries was not to admit an adult Guale to baptism unless he first promised to live in a permanent marriage with no more than one spouse. A contemporary describes Fray Pedro, saying, "Being a wise and holy man, the love of God burned in his heart, and by means of prayer, abstinence, and self-discipline he gave good example to the Indians of the West whom he strove to convert." Fray Pedro would be the first of the five to die as a witness to Jesus' teaching on marriage. |
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