Bartolomé de las Casas, Apostle to the Indies
20 July -- Commemoration
If observed as a Lesser Festival,
Common of Any Saint, page 527
Bartolomé de las Casas was the sixteenth-century
Dominican priest who became known as 'the defender of the
Indians' in 'the new world' of America. Born in 1484 at Las
Casas in Seville, Bartolomé arrived in Haiti in 1502
and underwent a conversion after witnessing the injustices
inflicted on the Indians. Proclaiming that Jesus Christ was
being crucified in the poor, he went on to spend a lifetime
challenging the Church and the Empire of his day. He was
consecrated Bishop of Chiapa in Mexico in 1543 where he
continued his prophetic rôle and emerges as a man of
unquestioned courage and a theologian of remarkable depth,
whose vision continues to set in relief the challenge of the
gospel in a world of injustice. He died on 18 July 1566.