Francisco Pareja

Francisco Pareja, OFM (c. 1570 – June 25, 1628)

Early life According to the title page of his Arte y pronunciación en lengua timucuana y castellana, Pareja was born at Auñón in the Diocese of Toledo, Spain; the date of his birth is unknown. He would have studied at a school and seminary there.

Career Pareja traveled to Florida in 1595 with eleven other Franciscans assigned by the Spanish government to establish missions to the Native Americans. It was the third Spanish effort to establish missions. The brothers were following earlier unsuccessful efforts by Jesuit missionaries, one of whom had been martyred; the others returned to Spain. A group of 13 Franciscans arrived at St. Augustine in 1587. Within five years, most of the Franciscans had become discouraged by their lack of progress and left.

Pareja's doctrina was on present-day Fort George Island near the mouth of the St. Johns River in what is now Jacksonville. A cacique or chief ruled the Timucuan village that was associated with San Juan del Puerto; the people spoke the Mocama dialect. In 1603 a Saturiwa whom the Spanish named Maria was cacica; the following year she told the Spanish that her people were pleased with Father Pareja. She may have ruled into the 1620s.

Pareja achieved some success with the Saturiwa; in 1602 he had 500 Christians within his custodio.

Developing written Timucuan In his most significant achievement, Pareja developed a form of written language for Timucua. His catechism in Spanish and Timucua, published in 1612, was the first book written in an indigenous language of the United States. Through 1627, he published several other works in both languages. Due to his books and teachings, both Timucuan men and women learned to read and write in less than six months. They were able to write letters to each other in their own language. His works were distributed to other Franciscans and enabled them to teach literacy and Christianity to the Timucua. Since the twentieth century, his work has also been studied for insights into the ethnography of the indigenous people. Seeking more financial support of the Franciscans, he wrote to the colonial government, which seemed to favor soldiers: "we are the ones who bear the burden and heats, and we are the ones subduing and conquering the land." The last contemporary record of him was a fellow Franciscan's reference to his work in Florida in the book published in 1627.

In his last posting, Pareja joined the province of the Holy Gospel in Mexico. He died in Mexico in 1628.

Works Pareja is noted for having published the first books in the language of an indigenous tribe (the Timucua) within the present-day United States. He published several works between 1612 and 1627 in Timucua and Spanish, although some have been lost. His surviving works are:

Catecismo En lengua Castellana y Timuquana (Mexico, 1612) Catecismo y Breve Exposición de la Doctrina Cristiana" (Mexico, 1612) Confessionario En lengua Castellana y Timuquana Con algunos consejos para animar al penitente (Mexico, 1613) Gramatica de la lengua Timuquana de Florida (Mexico, 1614) Catecismo de la Doctrina Cristiana En lengua Timuquana (Mexico, 1627) Catecismo y Examen para los que Comulgan, En lengua Castellana y Timuquana (Mexico, 1627) Arte y pronunciación en lengua timuquana y castellana (Mexico, 1627) Catechismo en lengua Timuquana y castellana: En que se trata el modo de oyr Missa, y sus ceremonias (Mexico, 1628)

In addition, he was known to have published two other religious works and compiled a dictionary, which did not survive.