AGURTO, PEDRO de. – Augustinian, first bishop of Cebù in the Philippines, born in Mexico, on an unknown date. Having entered the Order, he enrolled at the University of Mexico in 1553. In 1584 he was provincial of his Order, and at the Third Council of Mexico (1585) he took part as a consulting theologian. He knew the Aztec and Tarascan languages perfectly. In 1595 he was elected bishop of Cebù; he died on 14 October 1608.
In the question of whether or not it was appropriate to admit the Indians to the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, A. took the side of the indigenous peoples, and in 1573 published a treatise to demonstrate the obligation to admit them to the Eucharist and Extreme Unction.
BIBL.: Streit, Bibl., I, pp. 50–51; IV, p. 361; M. Cuevas, Historia de la Iglesia en Mexico, II, Tlalpam, (Mexico) 1922, p. 431 and passim: R. Ricard, La «conquête spirituelle» du Mexique, Paris 1933.