Romero, Juan

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ROMERO, JUAN

Jesuit missionary and theologian; b. Marchena, Seville, 1559; d. Santiago, Chile, March 31, 1630. He entered the Jesuits in Montilla in 1580, and in 1589 went to Lima, where he completed his ecclesiastical studies. After ordination he was professor of theology in Lima. He received his training for the missions at Juli, Puno, Peru. From 1593 to 1598 he was superior of the Tucumán (Argentina) mission, did missionary work in Asunción, Salta, Jujuy, Córdoba, Santa Fé, and Corrientes. In 1597 he was the theologian for the diocesan synod of Santiago del Estero; in 1608, as reporter of his province to the Jesuit general, he went to Rome. He was superior of Buenos Aires, Santiago del Estero, Santiago de Chile, and Concepción. In 1625 he was the first vice provincial of Chile. His work was threefold: as missionary he worked in the areas of the Chaco-Santiagueno, Guaraní, Araucana, and Quechua native cultures; as superior he organized active missions and schools; as theologian and canonist he published a two-volume work, De praedestinatione. In 1610 as a result of his experience in Tucumán, he sent the Council of the Indies a memorial on future administrative policy for the port of Buenos Aires.

Bibliography: e. torres saldamando, Los antiguos jesuitas del Perú (Lima 1882).

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