Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo
(Santo Toribio Alfonso de Mogrovejo; Mayorga, Valladolid, 1538 - large Sana, Peru, 1606) Spanish prelate. Councillor of the Inquisition at Granada, was named Archbishop of Lima in 1579. Arriving in Peru, he met the III Council Provincial de Lima (1582-1583), who published a catechism translated to quechua and aymara. He founded also the conciliar seminar of Lima, the first in America. He learned the quechua, the guajivo, the guajoya and the tuncha to preach to the Indians in their own language.
Turibius of Mongrovejo studied law and theology at the universities of Salamanca and Coimbra (Portugal), and in 1568 was named Inquisitor of Granada. The special skills they showed in this post (not abused its prerogatives and was rather flexible in prosecutions) presented it as an ideal candidate for the apostolate on American soil. Following the proposal of his name to the Archdiocese of Lima, Toribio in 1579 took Holy orders and, once elevated to Bishop, arrived in this American city in may 1581.
During the following years Santo Toribio carried out a huge work to the Organization of its vast Archdiocese, so toured it four times, learned quechua and other indigenous languages in order to achieve better communication with the indigenous people and encouraged the missionaries to follow their example; He also edit the first American Catechisms, both in Spanish and in various indigenous languages. In this way, without violent imposition and using their own language, was able to spread the Gospel among the Indians Quechua and Aymara.
Toribio convened three important councils provincial (1591, 1582 and 1601) whose records were collected in the ecclesiastical code of Peru, and the first American Seminary founded in Lima in 1591. It gave further confirmation to Santa Rosa de Lima, San Martin de Porres and San Juan Macías. Beatified in 1679 by Pope Inocencio XI (1676-1689) and canonized in 1726 by Benedicto XIII (1724-1730), Juan Paul II proclaimed him patron of the Latin American episcopate in 1983. His feast is celebrated on April 27.
