Benavides, Alonso

BENAVIDES, ALONSO. - Born in an unknown year, on the island of S. Miguel, and having entered the Franciscan order in the convent of Mexico (1603), he was the first "custos" of the missions of New Mexico (from 1622), where he went with 26 companions. Already by 1630, between 80 and 100,000 baptized Indians were being reported, especially among the Xumani and the Quirivi, so that the viceroy sent him to Spain to inform King Philip IV. These rapid conversions are connected with the apparitions of the mystic Maria Agreda (v.). In 1631, while he was about to set out again for New Mexico, he was elected archbishop of Goa. The place and year of his death are unknown.

He wrote some short accounts of those missions, valuable for their geographical and ethnographic contributions, though not free from some exaggeration regarding the number of Indians (Relación de los grandes Teoros espirituales y temporales descubiertos con el auxilio de Dios en el Nuevo México, and Memorial que Fray Juan de Santander de la orden de S. Francisco..., presenta a la Majestad Católica del Rey, both published in Madrid in 1630).