Most Reverend Luis Zapata de Cárdenas | |
---|---|
Archbishop of Santafé | |
Church | Catholic Church |
Archdiocese | Archdiocese of Santafé en Nueva Granada |
In office | 1570–1590 |
Predecessor | Juan de los Barrios |
Successor | Alfonso López de Avila |
Orders | |
Consecration | May 1571 by Giovanni Battista Castagna |
Personal details | |
Born | 1515 |
Died | 24 February 1590 (aged 79–80) Bogotá |
Friar Luis Zapata de Cárdenas, O.F.M. Rec. (1515 – 24 February 1590) was a Roman Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Santafé de Bogotá, capital of the New Kingdom of Granada (1573–1590). [1]
Luis Zapata de Cárdenas was born in Llerena, Spain, in 1515. [2] His father, Rodrigo de Cárdenas, was Comendador de Oliva in the Order of Santiago. [2]
Zapata served in the armies of Charles V in the Holy Roman Empire and Flanders. [2] He rose to the ranks of maestre de campo and became a member of the Order of Santiago. [2]
He left the military and became a friar in a Franciscan convent of San Ildefonso in Hornachos, which had recently been reconquered by Christian armies from Muslim rule. [2] He became Superior (guardián) over multiple monasteries in the same province. [2]
In 1560, the Franciscan Order named Zapata General Commissary for Peru. [2] He arrived in South America in 1561 with fifty friars. He returned to Spain in 1565, serving as Provincial in the Franciscan province of San Miguel (Extremadura) between 1566 and 1572. [2]
In 1569, Philip II named Zapata the first bishop of Cartagena de Indias, but Zapata declined the position. [2]
On 8 November 1570 he was appointed during the papacy of Pope Pius V as Archbishop of Santafé en Nueva Granada. [1] [3] In May 1571, he was consecrated bishop by Giovanni Battista Castagna, Archbishop of Rossano. [3] He arrived in Santafé in 1573, serving as Archbishop of Santafé en Nueva Granada until his death on 24 Feb 1590. [1] [3] As archbishop, he published pro-indigenous statements and ordained mestizos. [4]
While bishop, he was the principal consecrator of Dionisio de Santos, Bishop of Cartagena (1575). [3]