ARANDA VALDIVIA, MARTÍN DE

ARANDA VALDIVIA, MARTÍN de. - Jesuit missionary, b. at Villarica (Chile) in 1560 or 1561, a soldier and formerly «corregidor» of Riobamba before entering the novitiate in 1592. After studies at Cuzco and some years of apostolic work in the mission of Juli, among the Chunchos Indians and in the seminary of Quito, he was appointed in 1618 with Fr. Orazio Vecchi (an Italian from Siena) to the mission among the Araucanians. Having converted two concubines of the cacique Anganamon, who had taken refuge among the Christians, the cacique came to retrieve them; and when the missionaries refused to hand them over, both were killed with blows of clubs and lances, together with the coadjutor brother Diego de Montalbán (Elicura, Dec. 1612). The process for the beatification of the three martyrs, begun in 1665, has been resumed in recent times.