SALVATERRA (SALVATIERRE), GIANMARIA. – Jesuit, missionary, and founder of the California mission; born in Milan on 15 November 1648, died while travelling to Guadalajara (Mexico) on 17 July 1717.
He entered the Order in 1688 and departed for Mexico in 1675, where, after spending several years teaching the humanities, he devoted himself to evangelizing the aboriginal peoples of the Sierra Madre, Sonora, Cinaloa, and Tarahumara. Enthused about California by Fr. E. Chino, who had worked there for several years but had then been forced to abandon the undertaking, impossible for the time being, he embarked for that mission on 10 October 1697. Having landed in the bay of S. Bruno, S. erected with his companions, in the nearby bay of S. Dionisio, a rudimentary fortress and several huts, and placed there the image of Our Lady of Loreto, thus creating the first settlement, which he called Loreto. He had received full powers from the Spanish government (as were held in the Reductions of Paraguay) and the task of bringing those regions under the Crown. His labours were crowned with success; when in 1704 he had to return to Mexico to become provincial, he had founded six missions, acquired a profound knowledge of the various languages, and travelled through the country in various directions. He returned there in 1707 to continue his work; ten years later, during the journey to Guadalajara to discuss the future of the mission, death overtook him, and he was buried in the beloved mission of Loreto.
He wrote many letters and numerous highly important reports, some of which have been preserved for us by Fr. E. Chino in his Favores celestiales, and by Fr. M. Venegas in his Noticia de la California.