Manuel Matamoros

Manuel Matamoros García (1834–1866) was a leading Spanish Protestant.

Biography Matamoros was born in Lepe in Huelva as the son of a lieutenant colonel in the Spanish Artillery and he was brought up at Málaga in Andulusia. He studied from 1850 to 1853 at the Military Academy in Toledo. Matamoros and Teva's sentences were eventually commuted to exile.

Matamoros went to France and finally died in Switzerland. He has been described as the founder of Spanish Protestantism and a symbol of religious freedom. Matamoros died in Lausanne.

Legacy Matamoros left behind an extensive collection of Carte de Visite for Protestants he had met in Lausanne, Gibraltar and elsewhere. These provide an insight into who he knew. For instance there is a card for Rev. William Harris Rule, a Methodist minister who had tried unsuccessfully to introduce Protestantism into Spain twenty years before Matamoros.