Juan de Salas (friar)

Juan de Salas
Nationality	Spanish
Occupation	Missionary
Known for	Founder of San Agustín de la Isleta Mission

Fray Juan de Salas was a Spanish Franciscan friar who provided religious instruction to the people of New Mexico and what is now Texas in the first half of the seventeenth century.

In 1622 Juan de Salas came to New Mexico with Alonso de Benavides. He became a missionary at the San Agustín de la Isleta Mission in Isleta Pueblo, New Mexico, just south of the modern city of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Fray Salas erected the "convent" of Isleta, probably around 1629 or 1630.

In the late 1620s the mission was visited by Jumano Indians from a region further south and east of Albuquerque. The visiting natives reported that they had been visited by a "Woman in Blue", and she had told them to ask for religious instruction. Some say the Jumanos were mainly interested in gaining protection from Apaches. At that time, the nun María de Ágreda was living in a convent in Ágreda, in Spain, and was known for falling into ecstatic trances. Between 1620 and 1623, she often said she was "transported by the aid of the angels" to settlements of people called Jumanos, and these reported visits continued in subsequent years, although less often. In 1629 the friars at Isleta received an inquiry from Spain about whether the Indians had reported visitations by a nun, and they immediately identified the "Woman in Blue" with María de Agreda.

Salas and Fray Fray Diego León visited the Jumanos country in July 1629, about 300 miles (480 km) to the ESE of Isleta, working with them for several months. When de Salas and López reached the Jumanos they found that they already had a good understanding of Christian teachings, which they put down to the work of the Lady in Blue. They therefore baptized all the ten thousand members of the tribe without further instruction. They also healed many sick people through the power of their religion. While there, they received requests for teaching from tribes further to the east. In 1632 Salas, Father Juan de Ortega and a small party of soldiers traveled to Jumano country near to what is now San Angelo, Texas. They named the river on which the Jumanas lived the Rio de Nueces because of the nuts that grew beside it. Salas returned to Santa Fe, and Ortega followed him after six months.

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