Padre Luis Jayme

Born Melchor Jayme on October 18, 1740, in the farming village of San Juan, Majorca, Spain, Padre Luis Jayme entered the Franciscan Order in 1760 and took Luis as his religious name. He became pastor of Mission San Diego in 1771 and was instrumental in moving the mission inland from the Presidio to its present site in August 1774. By December of that year, adobe and thatch buildings had been constructed, crops were planted, and many natives had joined mission life and were baptized as Christians. That progress ended in the early morning of November 5, 1775, when hundreds of natives from remote villages burned the mission buildings, pillaged the church, and murdered Padre Jayme as he greeted them with the words, "¡Amar a Dios, hijos! - Love God, my children!" He became California's first Christian martyr, and his remains are buried in the sanctuary of the church at Mission San Diego de Alcalá.

San Diego, California · United States