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The saints

St. Turibius of Mogrovejo

A law professor made archbishop of Lima while still a layman, who walked his whole diocese.

Feast: 23 March · 1538 to 1606 · Reformation and missions · Lima, Peru

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Painting of St. Turibius of Mogrovejo in red, kneeling in prayer before an altar.

MNBAArgentina, 2015. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

Home / The saints / St. Turibius of Mogrovejo

Lima, Peru, 1581

Turibius was a Spanish lawyer and professor at Salamanca, not even a priest.1

The king chose him as archbishop of Lima anyway, and he protested that the canons forbade it.1

He lost the argument, was ordained, and sailed to Peru.

Patronage No official patronage we can cite yet. The Church remembers him as the great archbishop of Lima and defender of native peoples.

01St. Turibius of Mogrovejo

On foot

He crossed his huge diocese on foot and by mule, learning native languages and baptizing and confirming people in the mountains.1

He defended the native peoples against Spanish abuse, and founded the first seminary in the Americas.1

Live it this week

Go to the people who can’t come to you

Turibius walked to the farthest villages. This week, take Communion, a meal or a visit to someone homebound, or call your parish and ask who needs a ride to Mass.

Notes

How we know · 1 source for this page
  1. Franciscan Media, Saint of the Day: “Saint Turibius of Mogrovejo”. franciscanmedia.org. franciscanmedia.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an errorCorrections.