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Born to the Spanish nobility, the son of Alonso del Castillo and María Rodríguez, Juan was baptized at the age of seven days. The boy was well educated, and was studying law at the University of Alcalá de Henares when he gave in to a call to religious life, and joined the Jesuits in Madrid, Spain on 22 March 1614. Assigned to the missions, he was sent to Buenos Aires, Argentina in late 1616. Ordained a priest in late 1625. He was assigned to the missions in Paraguay in 1626 where he lived with the locals, preaching the faith and teaching. One of the Jesuit Martyrs of Paraguay, killed by local “sorcerers”.

Born

14 September 1595 in Belmonte, Cuenca, Spain

Died

stoned and beaten to death with axes on 17 November 1628 in the forest outside Ijuí, Rio Grande do Sul, Paraguay (in modern Brazil)
his body was burned by his killers

Venerated