ASENSIO, ESTEBAN DE

ASENSIO, ESTEBAN de. — Missionary, in Spain in 1527, d. in Colombia in 1585. He was the sixth and last holder of the Franciscan custody of Colombia. He entered the Franciscan Order and completed his novitiate in the convent of St. Francis in Sala, in the province of Santiago. In 1591 he left for America, where his superiors assigned him to the missions in Colombia. For two years he worked and preached in the city of Santa Fé. Elected custos, he went to Spain, where he gathered a group of 30 missionaries, and, returning to Colombia, was elected minister of the new religious province (1566). During his administration two convents were founded: one at Trinidad de Muso for the conversion of the Muso Indians, and another at Ancer-ma. He baptized many Indians in various regions of Colombia and left a historical memoir covering the period from 1550 to 1585.