Continuing to share the fruits of my research for a recent presentation – let’s move to look at the work of Fr. Francisco Pareja. Who was he?
Friar Francisco Pareja (d. 1628) first traveled to Florida from his homeland Spain in 1595. As friars of the Franciscan order, Pareja and the eleven priests who accompanied him to Florida followed Francis of Assisi’s example of living a peaceful life and helping the needy. An ethnographic and historical source, the Confessionario was originally written in Spanish and Timucuan in 1613 in an effort by Franciscan priests to introduce the sacrament of confession to the natives of Florida. Though Pareja would later write several other books in and about the Timucuan language that would lead to his being recognized in 1614 as the unofficial scholar of the Florida Franciscans, his Confessionario stands out amongst his other works because it offers insight into the lives and motivations of the Spanish explorers as well as the Florida natives.
The site of San Juan del Puerto is Fort George Island, in Jacksonville across from the Mayport Naval base.
The website for the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, where the mission was located.
His primary historical importance was as a linguist: he developed the first writing system for the American Indian Timucua language. In 1612 he published the first book in an indigenous language of the United States, a catechism in Spanish and Timucua. From 1612 to 1627, he published eight other works in Spanish and Timucua, for the use of his teaching brothers; six of his works survive. He taught Timucuans to read and write within six months.
You can see five of these works on the site of the New York Historical Society.
How were the printed? The text was sent to Mexico City, where it was typeset and printed, then books sent back to Florida. In the early 17th century, while the English were trudging around Jamestown.
A portion of the Confessionario is translated here.
Are you a doctor? Did you cure someone badly in such a manner that they had to call you again and give you something more? In order that they pay more, have you said: if you don’t give me something, the sickness that you have will return?
Have you cured anyone with prayers to the Devil or with the ceremony of adulation? Have you cured some person, entreating the Devil to improve him and doing and saying those things that he commands be taken out and done, have you done this? Have you produced a new fire or made a fire apart to cure someone? Have you believed that with these prayers and superstitions a person can be cured?
When they are running for some prize or stake, have you made someone in the race faint with some herbs? Have you taken an herb to run faster than the other in order to take the bet or the prize that they put up?
After someone ill has given you something to be cured, have you not returned until he pays you more?
There are other documents related to Spanish Florida at the same site. For example, a translation of a friar’s account of the version of the ball game played among these peoples here.
A Flagler College professor has discovered a rare Spanish-Timucua book that will help researchers learn more about the native people of St. Augustine.
The book was written by Friar Francisco Pareja in 1628, and its title translates in English to “Part Four of the Catechism in the Timucua and Castilian Languages, which treats the manner of listening to the Mass and its ceremonies.”
The book is a rare find because the native Timucua were wiped out by disease, war and slavery, and their language is no longer spoken.
The last time a Timucua book was found was back in the 1800s. Two books published in 1612 are the oldest written materials in an indigenous language of the present-day U.S., making this book another valuable piece of history.
Professor Timothy Johnson, who teaches religion at Flagler, discovered the book while on sabbatical for the fall 2019 semester. He was researching Spanish-Timucua sermon stories from 17th century Florida and came across a reference to the book in the Codrington Library at Oxford University in England.
“I thought, ’This must be a mistake.’ Scholars had no knowledge of him publishing a book in 1628,” Johnson said. “I got a knot in my stomach because I knew this was going to be something totally new.”
So, why the fuss about a book of some 129 folios? The title begins to answer this question: The Fourth Part of the Catechism in the Timucuan and Castilian languages which treats the manner of listening to the Mass and its Ceremonies. Published in Mexico, this may be the only extant liturgical catechism produced in Mexico during the Spanish Colonial Period. Tracing the trajectory of the volumes Friar Pareja published with the assistance of Timucuaco-authors, we realize that earlier works treating the foundations of faith, baptism, confession, and Eucharist culminate in the celebration of the sacred mysteries of the Mass found in The Mass and its Ceremonies.
Similar to other period catechisms, The Mass and its Ceremonies begins with a series of questions and answers regarding why someone should go to church. … This introductory section also describes the benefits of holy water and concludes with a prayer to be offered when entering a church:
“I will enter Lord into your house and temple, and confess and adore your holy name, Amen Jesus.”
The substance of the following folios is dedicated to commenting, in both Spanish and Timucua, on phrases from the Latin Mass and subsequent prayers. A striking trait of both linguistic versions is the detailed and extended focus on the Via Crucis of Good Friday before the consecration and The Our Father preceding the sign of peace.
Since the prayer that Christ taught his disciples, the Our Father , holds such a prominent place in the celebration of the Eucharist, it is wonderful to find that Friar Pareja and his fellow Timucua author(s)offer a rich commentary on each petition.
Evident are the hardships of daily life in the Spanish and Timucua Christian communities. When elaborating on the seventh petition, “And liberate us from evil,” they write in part,
“All powerful and eternal God, liberator of human weakness and sickness, and of the infinite, almost unnumberable evils that surround, enclose, tire, and squeeze us in the course of a miserable life: Consider well that we are not forgetful of you, nor lose sight of you in the necessities of each day, hunger, thirst, heat, cold, plagues, many types of sickness, wars, fires, flooding, heresies, errors, schisms, and affliction. Against so many evils, we are without arms, forces, and capabilities. You are our recourse, a city of refuge and protection.”
This commentary on the perils of life, a meditation on the Lord’s passion, prayers, and other reflections shared by those who gathered to celebrate Mass in and around the city of St. Augustine in the 1600s, offers a glimpse into a rich, forgotten era of Christian history. The turn of each folio of The Mass and its Ceremonies confirms a unique and now lost expression of multicultural faith in the 1600s and belies the long-standing stereotype of Native American illiteracy
Charlotte was Both 
“Have you taken an herb to run faster than the other in order to take the bet or the prize that they put up?”
The 17th century version of the steroid scandal. There’s truly nothing new under the Sun.