Pedro de Corpa and Companions
(d. 1597)These five friars were martyred in Georgia for their insistence on monogamy in Christian marriages.
In 1565 the Spanish established a fort and a settlement at St.
Augustine, Florida. Pedro de Corpa came from Spain to Florida in 1587
and in the same year went to the missions among the Guale people in
Georgia.
Pedro worked in Tolomato (near present Darien) where he converted
a number of Guales and assisted their chief in running this Christian
village. Juanillo, the chief’s son, lapsed into polygamy and was urged
to give this up. He refused and was publicly denounced and deprived of
the right to succeed his father. Juanillo left, but only to gather some
friends to help him seek vengeance on the friars. They killed Father
Pedro several days later on September 13, 1597.
Father Blas de Rodriguez had come to Florida from Spain in 1580.
He was the superior of the five martyred friars. Juanillo and his
followers killed Blas on September 16 at the village of Tupiqui (near
present Eulonia).
Father Miguel de Anon had come to Georgia in 1595; Brother
Antonio de Badajoz in 1587. They were working together on St.
Catherine’s Island when Juanillo and his followers killed them on
September 17.
Father Francisco de Berascola had come to Georgia in 1595 and
founded the Misión Santo Domingo de Asao on St. Simon’s Island. He was
martyred by Juanillo’s forces around September 18.
In 1605 the Guale missions were reestablished. They again began
to prosper until English colonists arrived and destroyed all of them by
1702.
