Saint Toribio Alfonso Mogrovejo, a Spaniard born in 1538, is honored on this day. The son of noble parents and well-educated, Mogrovejo became professor of laws at the prestigious University of Salamanca, located west of Madrid. The University was highly-regarded, sometimes called ‘the Athens of Spain’, a scholarly meeting place supporting the kingdom’s goals. St. Mogrovejo was drafted out of the school and appointed Grand Inquisitor of Spain by Phillip II. Shortly thereafter, he received Holy Orders and was consecrated Archbishop of Peru.

He traveled across the seas in a Spanish galleon and landed at his new post in 1581. Throughout Lima and his entire diocese, he pioneered for the welfare of the natives; founding schools, churches, hospitals, and convents as well as organizing a road system. The New World’s first seminary, located in Lima, was founded by him in 1591. Mogrovejo was canonized by Benedict XII in 1726.