Martín de Rada

Martín de Rada (Pamplona, Navarre, Spain June 30, 1533 - South China Sea, June 1578; also known as Herrada) was one of the first members of the Order of Saint Augustine (OSA) to evangelize the Philippines, as well as one of the first Christian missionaries to visit Ming China.

When he was twelve years old, de Rada's parents sent him and his older brother to study at the University of Paris. But conflicts forced his return to Spain, and he enrolled at the University of Salamanca, where he joined the Augustinians. He made his religious profession there on November 21, 1554.

In 1560, he volunteered to work in New Spain (Mexico), a decision he reached while assigned at the Augustinian monastery in Toledo. Alonso de la Vera Cruz, OSA, an educator who established in Mexico the first university in the New World, later wrote that de Rada was "a man of uncommon talent, a good theologian and an eminence in mathematics. ..."

In Mexico, de Rada was assigned to study the Otomi language, and was successfully speaking it after only five months in the area. He went on to write instructional sermons and a book in that language. The talents and administrative abilities of de Rada were noted not only by the Augustinian leaders in Mexico but also by his superiors in Spain.

When in 1564 Augustinians were being chosen to accompany Andrés de Urdaneta, OSA, on the royal expedition to the Philippines that was to sail from Mexico under the command of Don Miguel López de Legazpi, his Father Provincial (or regional religious superior) in Spain asked that de Rada should stay in Mexico "until it is known about the success of the armada" (that is, the success of Legazpi's armed fleet in its attempt to reach and colonize the Philippines).

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