Fray Juan de Padilla

Father Padilla, a Franciscan missionary, stood with Coronado at the erection of the first Christian cross on these prairies. He devoted his life to the service of the cross and to the Indians of Quivira, and suffered a martyr's death in that service in 1542. The symbol inscribed with “Jesus Christ, Victor” expresses the victory of faith and sacrifice, and the square quartered by the cross denotes the four corners of the world brought into Christian unity when he carried Christianity to the center of the New World.

Kansas · United States