Jerome Santisteban - 01

Jeronimo de Santisteban O.S.A. was one of the four men who without intending it became the first priests and the first members of a religious order to sail all the way around the world.

 

The description he left of this adventure indicate that this task had proved to be a lengthy and dangerous.

 

Of the four, Santisteban is singled out here because his written reports are one of the best descriptions of the major part of this venture.

 

His writings still exist.

 

Some of it was published. The rest of it in his own handwriting is stored in the official archives of the Indies in Seville, Spain.

 

This page needs to be read in conjunction with the Augnet page that describes in general the expedition led by Ruy Lopez de Villalobos in 1542 from Mexico across the Pacific Ocean to the Philippines and beyond, in which voyage Santisteban took part.

 

The background information that is provided on that page will not be repeated here.

 

Jeronimo de Santisteban was born in Spain, where he joined the Order of Saint Augustine and was sent to Mexico.

 

It was there in 1542 that he was one of four members of the Order chosen to travel with an expedition of four ships on behalf of Charles V, the king of Spain, that was led by Ruy Lopez de Villalobos.

 

Four excellent men of the Order of Saint Augustine in Mexico were selected. The choice was the task of the Province of Spain (later called the Province of Castile).

 

The leader of the Order in that Province was Alonso de la Vera Cruz O.S.A., who previously himself had served in Mexico with distinction.

 

The members of the Order appointed to the expedition were Jeronimo de Santisteban O.S.A., Nicolas de Perea O.S.A., Sebestian_Reina (or de Trasierra) O.S.A., and Alfonso de Alvarado O.S.A..

 

Because of an unexpected outcome of this expedition, these four members of the Order became the first priests and the first members of any religious Order to sail around the world, although doing so had not been their intention, nor had it been the purpose of the expedition.

 

One of these men, Nicholas de Perea O.S.A., was to be one of the Council of the Order in Mexico who twenty two years later in 1564 signed a letter of authority to Andrés de Urdaneta O.S.A, and the four other members of the Order for the successful expedition that sailed from Mexico to the Augustinians in Cebu in the Philippines in 1564.