Description
Book SynopsisThis essay deals with the missionary work of the Society of Jesus in today’s Micronesia from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. Although the Jesuit missionaries wanted to reach Japan and other Pacific islands, such as the Palau and Caroline archipelagos, the crown encouraged them to stay in the Marianas until 1769 (when the Society of Jesus was expelled from the Philippines) to evangelize the native Chamorros as well as to reinforce the Spanish presence on the fringes of the Pacific empire. In 1859, a group of Jesuit missionaries returned to the Philippines, but they never officially set foot on the Marianas during the nineteenth century. It was not until the twentieth century that they went back to Micronesia, taking charge of the mission on the Northern Marianas along with the Caroline and Marshall Islands, thus returning to one of the cradles of Jesuit martyrdom in Oceania.
Trade Review“This impressively erudite essay provides a condensed but informative history of Jesuit missionary engagement in Micronesia.” John Barker, University of British Columbia. In: The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Vol. 72, No. 1 (2021), pp. 200–201. “Alexandre Coello de la Rosa offers a brief history of the Jesuit missions in Micronesia from arrival in the Marianas Islands in 1668 to the conclusion of World War II in 1945. The fifteen high-quality images, sixteen sections, over four hundred footnotes, and a bibliography of fourteen pages made for an instructive narrative. I recommend this book as an overview of the Jesuits in Micronesia. In addition, Coello’s wide use of scholars of Pacific Islands studies has much to teach a worldwide audience. The author introduces the global mission of the Society of Jesus and “global modernity in the Iberian colonial empires,” connecting histories of the Jesuits from the Pacific Ocean to Atlantic histories, the Spanish monarchy, and world history, all in a worthy endeavor.” James B. Tueller, Brigham Young University, Hawaii. In: Journal of Jesuit Studies, Vol. 7, No. 4 (2020), pp. 673–675.
Table of ContentsIntroduction The Arrival of the Jesuits in the Philippines The Marianas as Part of the Universal Christian Project Gathering Souls at the Margins of the Spanish Empire To Retain or Abandon the Marianas? Corruption, Greed, and Misgovernment New Spiritual and Geopolitical Configurations The Baroque Theater of Power Lights and Shadows: The Virgin of Our Lady of Light A New Foothold in the Nineteenth-Century Carolines Twentieth-Century Jesuits at the Crossroads of the New Pacific World Empires Chuuk Yap Palau and Pohnpei The Marshall Islands Conclusion
