Juan Padilla

Juan Padilla (born c. 1500, Andalusia, Spain—died 1542, near modern Herington, Kan., U.S.) was the first Christian missionary martyred within the territory of the present United States.

After serving as a soldier, Padilla joined the Franciscans in Andalusia. He went to Spanish Mexico in 1528 and in the following year accompanied an expedition to Nueva Galicia (northwestern Mexico). There he spent most of his remaining years, except for a trip in 1533 to Tehuantepec, in southern Mexico, with the Spanish conqueror Hernán Cortés. He founded the first Franciscan friaries at Zapotlán, Tamazula, and Tulantizingo, where he became abbot.

In 1540–41 he accompanied the Spanish explorer Francisco Vázquez de Coronado in his fruitless quest for a legendary kingdom of riches called Quivira, probably in modern Kansas. The disappointed Coronado and his company returned to Mexico, but Padilla decided to go back to Quivira with some companions. After working for many months among the Wichita Indians, he was on his way to visit the Guas tribe but was ambushed by them while within sight of his companions, who escaped to Mexico.