Saint Turibius of Mogrovejo, Bishop

Toribio Alfonso de Mogrovejo was born in Spain in 1538 and became a lawyer and a judge of the Inquisition at Granada. In 1579, still a layman, he was chosen archbishop of Lima, a diocese stretching across much of South America; he was ordained and arrived in 1581.

He spent long years travelling his diocese, on foot and by mule, often through mountains, learning Quechua to speak with the people, and is said to have confirmed about half a million people, among them the future saints Rose of Lima and Martin de Porres. In 1582–1583 he held a council in Lima that issued a catechism in Spanish, Quechua and Aymara, and in 1591 he founded the first seminary in the Americas. He died on a visitation at Saña on 23 March 1606.