ARANDA VALDIVIA, MARTÍN DE

ARANDA VALDIVIA, Martín de. - Jesuit missionary
b. in Villarica (Chile) in 1560 or 1561, a soldier and former
‘corregidor’ of Riobamba before entering the novitiate in
1592. After studies at Cuzco and several years of apostolic
work in the mission of Juli among the Chunchos Indians and
in the seminary of Quito, he was appointed in 1618, together
with Fr Horatius Vecchi (an Italian from Siena), to the mission
among the Araucanians. When he converted two concubines of
the cacique Anganamón, who had taken refuge among the
Christians, the cacique came to reclaim them; and since the
missionaries refused to surrender them, all three—Aranda
Valdivia, Vecchi, and the lay brother Diego de Montalbán
(died at Elicura, December 1612)—were killed with clubs and
spears. The beatification process for the three martyrs, begun
in 1665, has been resumed in recent times.