Beltrán, Luis (Saint) (1526–1581)

Luis (Saint) Beltrán (b. 1 January 1526; d. 10 October 1581), Spanish Dominican missionary and patron saint of Colombia. Born in Valencia and ordained in 1547, Beltrán arrived in Cartagena in 1562. After proselytizing among the Indians of the northern coast, he served for three years as doctrinero of Turbará, near present-day Barranquilla. A letter from Bartolomé de Las Casas warning him to be careful of how he confessed and absolved encomenderos of their sins may have led him to a more determined defense of the Indians. Appearing before one banquet table of encomenderos, Beltrán dramatically squeezed the corn arepas (pancakes), the fruit of Indian labor, so hard that blood supposedly trickled onto the white tablecloth. His conflicts with encomenderos and his fame as a holy man grew. Brought back to Cartagena as a preacher and fundraiser, Beltrán addressed audiences all along the Caribbean coast from Nombre de Dios to Santa Marta. On his way to serve as prior of the Dominican friary in Bogotá, he was ordered back to Spain, where he arrived in 1569. Chosen to head several Spanish religious houses, he died in Valencia. He was beatified by Paul V in 1608 and canonized by Clement X in 1671.

See alsoDominicans .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

See Juan Manuel Pacheco, S.J., Historia extensa de Colombia, vol. 13, Historia eclesiástica, tomo 1, La evangelización del Nuevo Reino, siglo xvi (1971), esp. pp. 485-488.

                                  Maurice P. Brungardt