HERRERO, ANDRÉS

Franciscan missionary, restorer of the Colegios Franciscanos de Propaganda Fide in Bolivia, Peru, and Chile; b. Arnedo, Logroño, Spain, 1782; d. Bolivia, 1838. He arrived in Peru in 1810 at the Apostolic College of Moquegua. For more than 20 years he served as a missionary in the basin of the Madre de Dios and Beni Rivers during the difficult period of the wars for independence. As a firm foundation for his evangelical work, he mastered the native languages and built schools, granges, and art and craft shops in each missionary center. He continued to work under the independent republican regime with a fervor equal to that he had displayed under the patronage of Spain. In view of the almost complete disruption of the Franciscan Order in its provincial organization, missionary colleges, and missions in the South American countries along the Pacific Coast, his greatest aspiration was to bring about its restoration. With the backing of the president of Bolivia, Santa Cruz, he began in 1833 by going to Europe in search of missionaries. He was received kindly by gregory xvi, who named him apostolic prefect of all missionary colleges and missions in South America. He returned to Bolivia in 1835 with 12 missionaries. In 1837, he traveled again to Europe, and secured 84 missionaries. With 19 of them, the Colegio de Ocopa in Peru was restored. Furthermore, in Bolivia he promoted national vocations. The work begun by Herrero was consolidated and extended in the following decades by all the South American nations of the Pacific Coast.

Bibliography: p. domÍnguez, El colegio franciscano de propaganda fide de Moquegua (Madrid 1955).

[o. saiz]