Biography

Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, Aug. 10, 1645 - March 15, 1711 was a Jesuit priest, explorer, missionary, maker of maps, astronomer, and mathematician. Father Kino in his day was a missionary who founded numerous missions and explored areas in Pimería Alta in southwestern North America, as well as areas in what are now northern Mexico, southern California, and southern Arizona

Kino was born in Tirol, Italy, he began his education in Germany. In 1665, Kino became a Jesuit priest. In 1681 he sailed the sea as a missionary from Spain to "New Spain".

He established his first Jesuit mission in 1687, in the modern day Sonora, Mexico. In 1691, he began a campaign of over 40 expeditions exploring southern Arizona spreading the word of christ, traveling from his base in Nuestra Señora de los Dolores in Sonora along the Rio Grande, the Gila River, and the Colorado River. During these expeditions, he discovered the sources of these rivers providing more opportunities to many. He was the first person to map this region. Kino also confirmed that the Lower part of California was not an island, it was a peninsula, known as the Baja Peninsula.

Mission

Father Kino distinguished himself as a mathematician, astronomy, and cartography in Germany and taught mathematics for many years at the University of Ingolstadt. He became a member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1665. His work as a missionary preaching the word of Jesus began in 1678, and was assigned to Spain's colony in Mexico. Kino arrived in Mexico City in the spring of 1681. After an abortive mission to Baja California in 1683, he began his longtime and dedicated mission to the Pima Indians in Pimeria Alta, otherwise known as present-day southern Arizona and the northern part of Sonora State in Mexico. In 1687, Father Kino established his first mission among the rural area and Indians of Sonora at Nuestra Senora de los Dolores. It became the headquarters for his explorations of expansion, as well as for the founding of many other missions, including San Xavier del Bac in 1700 near Tucson, Guevavi and Tumacacori which is now a U.S. National Monument.

In 1691, Father Kino made the first of over 40 expeditions into Arizona. In 1694, he was the first European explorer to visit the Hohokam ruins of Casa Grande. He is also known to have explored the sources of the Rio Grande, the Colorado and Gila rivers. His explorations of the area around the heart of the Colorado River in 1701 taught him that Baja California was a peninsula, and not an island. His 1705 map was the standard reference for the southwestern desert region for over a century. Father Kino helped the Pima Indians advance their agriculture allowing it to diversity and aided them in their constant bloody conflicts with the Apaches, he also opposed the Indian enslavement in the silver mines of northern Mexico.

Death

Kino remained holding strong to his missions until the day he passed away 1711. He died from a fever in March 15th 1711, Father Kino was the age of 65 when he died. He passed in what is now present-day Magdalena de Kino, Sonora, Mexico. In respect, his skeletal remains can be viewed in his crypt which is a national monument of Mexico.

Skeletal Remains

Tucson Statue

Padre Eusebio Francisco Kino sits on a horse overlooking South Kino Parkway, East 15th Street in Tucson.

The sculpture of the 17th-century Jesuit priest’s travels by horseback is dedicated to how Father Kino’s life and legacy as a Explorer, Jesuit missionary, cartographer, farmer and rancher. He founded 21 missions in the Pimería Alta, what is now Northern Sonora and Southern Arizona. A second equestrian bronze statue is shared with Segno, Italy, where the padre was born. The plaza in Segno was renamed after the padre in 1991 when the sculpture and a gift from the city of Tucson, Pima County and private donors to Segno. The street that leads to the town square is Via Sonora and another street that goes from the square to the church of Torra where Kino was baptized. On Aug. 8, the Kino Heritage Society, which is dedicated to promote Father Kino’s cause for sainthood and to educate the public about his all his work he has done for the communities he reached.

Path to Sainthood

The process to canonize Father Kino began in the 1960s and it began in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. According to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops website, after a candidate becomes venerable, the next step is blessed and then canonized as a saint in history.

Legacy

Kino has been honored both in Mexico and the United States, with various towns, streets, schools, monuments, and geographic features named after him. In 1965, a statue of Kino was donated to the United States Capitol's National Statuary Hall collection, one of two statues representing Arizona. The copper silicate mineral Kinoite is named in his honor. Another equestrian statue also stands next to the Cathedral in the city of Hermosillo, Sonora, México. The towns of Bahía Kino, and Magdalena de Kino in Sonora and Ejido Padre Kino in Baja California are named in his honor. A park with a statue of Kino resides in the city of Nogales, Arizona. The Current largest statue of Kino is located along the US and Mexico border in Tijuana, Baja California. An equestrian statue featuring Kino, donated in 1967 by the Mexican state of Sonora, stands in Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza near the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix. In 2009, Mexican and American Jesuit provinces and Catholic dioceses, the Jesuit Refugee Service, and the Missionary Sisters of the Eucharist, founded the Kino Border Initiative which is a binational migrant service and advocacy organization in Nogales, Arizona. A monument to Kino was made in 2015 in the garden of Piazza Dante, Trento, Italy. In 1963, father Kino was inducted and set into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum where he will be commemorated and remembered for the rest of time.