Introduction

Three points of Juan de Guadalupes's story are particularly relevant for the study of the New Spanish mission. Several of the friars who transferred from the Observant province of Santiago into the new Guadalupan houses became important leaders in the mission field. The chapter looks at great importance of the Guadalupan reform on the New Spanish mission field in the fact that the first Franciscan province in New Spain also carried the name Santo Evangelio. Third, once Guadalupe abandoned Granada, he also seems to have abandoned his active missionary vocation, retreating instead into the internally focused rigor of his predecessors. Guadalupe felt a more active, evangelistic vocation than most of his medieval predecessors and, acting on this vocation, in 1496 he sought and gained permission in Rome to establish a missionary custody in the newly conquered kingdom of Granada. At each stage of the development of Franciscan spirituality, the writings of Francis himself were central.