Eusebio Kino. Jesuit priest in Hall in Tirol
The priest Padre Eusebio Francisco Kino, whose real name was Eusebius Franz Kühn, (born on 10 August 1645 in Segno, now Taio in Trentino; died on 15 March 1711 in Magdalena de Kino / Sonora, Mexico) received his schooling with the Jesuits in Hall in Tyrol. Padre Kino was a Tyrolean Jesuit who worked as a cartographer and missionary in the south-west of the USA and the north-west of Mexico.
Padre Kino grew up in modest circumstances. His parents sent him to a Jesuit school in Trento, where he learnt to read and write. He then went to Hall in Tyrol, which was one of the major centres of the Alpine region in the 17th century. In Hall, Kino attended the Jesuit College. It was at the Jesuit College in Hall, near Innsbruck, that Eusebio Francisco Kino had a life-changing experience:
It was here that his life took a dramatic turn. The young Eusebio fell seriously ill. The doctors fought to save his life, but his condition seemed hopeless. Eusebio’s great role model was St Francis Xavier (Haller’s patron saint!), and so he decided to say a novena to him. Whilst praying the novena, he vowed to the saint that, should he recover, he would join the Jesuit Order as a missionary. This idea was familiar to him, as his cousin Martinus Martini had joined the Order and become a respected cartographer and astronomer in China.
Source: An unsere Freude – Informationen der Süddeutschen Jesuiten, Munich 2002, p. 7
After his time in Hall in Tyrol, he went to Ingolstadt in Upper Bavaria. In 1665, he joined the Jesuits in Landsberg, Bavaria. Kino was particularly enthusiastic about the natural sciences and mathematics. After successfully completing his theological studies, Kino decided to work as a missionary in the Orient. To this end, he even turned down an offer from the Bavarian Prince for a teaching post at the University of Ingolstadt.
As fate would have it, Kino was sent to Mexico rather than the Far East. In 1678, he was sent to Spain to study the Spanish language. Three years later, he set sail with 18 companions for Veracruz in New Spain. At that time, New Spain stretched across large parts of what are now the United States and Mexico.
Padre Cinema in America
Shortly after his arrival in America, Padre Kino undertook an expedition. During this, he witnessed first-hand the dire consequences of the attempted colonisation of Southern California, an endeavour led by the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés. It was only through an agreement between the Spanish Crown and the Jesuits that the Order became solely responsible for California. During the same expedition, Padre Kino discovered that Lower California was not an island, as had previously been assumed, but a peninsula. In Lower California, he was entrusted with the evangelisation of the Guaymas and the Seris.
One of his main areas of work emerged some time later in Loreto. Under Padre Kino’s leadership, several missions were established within a short space of time. Among his priorities were fostering good relations with the indigenous peoples and, furthermore, mediating between those indigenous tribes which were often engaged in armed conflicts with one another. Padre Kino maintained active and cordial relations with numerous indigenous tribes and was therefore explicitly consulted by tribal chiefs on matters of concern. He reciprocated the great trust placed in him by the indigenous population in the interests of both parties. Among other things, he learnt the language of the Pima Indians. He was committed to improving the economic and health conditions of the Native Americans. Padre Kino also imparted knowledge of agriculture as well as, for example, the working of iron.
In his capacity as a cartographer, he was the first to draw up topographical maps of the south-western United States: with his pro-Native American attitude, Padre Kino met with a lack of understanding from many of his contemporaries. The Native Americans, however, gave him the name ‘Black Farmer’ because of his monk’s habit.
Bahía Kino in the Gulf of California, the town of Magdalena de Kino in Mexico, and numerous schools and streets in Mexico and Arizona, USA, are named after him. Padre Kino has been immortalised among the hundred great American figures to whom a statue has been dedicated in the ‘Hall of Fame’ at the Capitol.
Many Mexicans revere him as a saint, and numerous admirers are campaigning for his beatification.
