Self Sacrifice of Padre Fray Juan de Padilla - 1544
Amarillo, Potter County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Front - Self Sacrifice of Padre Fray Juan De Padilla - 1544; Back - Built to the glorious and perpetual memory of Father Fray Juan De Padilla, O.F.M. Franciscan Missionary, first martyr for Christianity in the United States and in Texas; Accompanied the Coronado Expedition to Palo Duro Canyon. Went with Francisco Vasquez de Coronado and his chosen party in search of La Gran Quivira; Returned soon and began his zealous labors for the civilizing and Christianizing of the Wichita and other Indian nations in the region of the Texas Panhandle; His martyrdom occurred in 1544; Erected jointly by the State of Texas and the Texas Knights of Columbus in 1936
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This 1936 monument honors the Franciscan missionary Fray Juan de Padilla, who accompanied Francisco Vásquez de Coronado's expedition into the Texas Panhandle and Palo Duro Canyon in the 1540s in search of the fabled Quivira. Returning to labor among the Wichita and other Native nations, Padilla was killed in 1544—remembered here as the first Christian martyr in what is now the United States.
Why it matters
It marks the earliest European push into the Southern Plains and the collision of Spanish missionary ambition with the Indigenous nations of the Panhandle, generations before English colonists reached America.
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Related people
- · Juan de Padilla
- · Francisco Vásquez de Coronado
Themes & tags
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