Luis de Cancer

Luis Cancer
Born	1500 Barbastro, in Aragon kingdom (in modern Spain)
Died	June 26, 1549 Tampa Bay, Florida
Occupation	Dominican priest

Servant of God Luis Cancer de Barbastro or Luis de Cancer (1500 – June 26, 1549) was a Dominican priest and pioneer Spanish missionary to the New World. He undertook a non-violent approach to converting the American Indians to Christianity, and had significant success in this regard in the Caribbean and later in Guatemala. In 1549 he continued his mission work in Florida, an area already ravaged by previous explorers, and was killed on the shores of Tampa Bay. After his death he was regarded as a martyr of the Catholic Church.

Cancer was born at Barbastro in Aragon in 1500. Luis entered the Dominican order and was inspired like many of his time to go to the New World in an effort to spread Christianity.

Fray de Cancer came to the New World in 1518 and worked successfully for some time among the native peoples of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola. He then ventured to the mainland and had particular success in Guatemala. A disciple of the famed Indian protector, Bartolomé de las Casas, Father de Cancer's efforts were so successful in an area that was known for its bellicose natives, that it was renamed the “Province of True Peace.” He believed that aggression and violence were counter-productive to the spread of the Gospel and that the native peoples needed to be treated with dignity. He had great success in pacifying the Indians whom more violent methods had failed to subdue. He upheld the cause of the natives at an ecclesiastical assembly held in Mexico in 1546.

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Wikipedia