Of Missionaries, Martyrs, and Makahnas

Abstract

The first of two chapters on missionary manhood in the Marianas, this chapter focuses on the mission’s beginnings and founder, Diego de Sanvitores. The Spanish Jesuit saw himself – and was perceived by others as – another Francis Xavier. Print technology, which circulated images and stories of saintly exemplars worldwide, offered a cultural template for such mimetic copying in the flesh. As Sanvitores fashioned himself into another Xavier, he sought to refashion the Mariana Islands, aided by Spanish colonial authorities. Violence and loss of life came to define this mission. Struggles for male spiritual hegemony between the Jesuits and indigenous shamans escalated hostilities. Sanvitores was killed and hailed as a martyr, drawing more men to the Marianas in search of Catholicism’s most heroic male death.