1. John Macias, OP, was a Spanish-born Dominican friar who evangelized in Peru in 1620.
18 Facts About John Macias
1. 2.
John Macias's image is located at the main altar of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary of Lima and is venerated by the local laity in Peru.
3.
John Macias's parents were poor farmers; both died when Juan and his sister Mary were young.
4.
When he was about 16 years old, John Macias met a Dominican friar while attending Mass in a neighboring village, and he began to consider the possibility of becoming a Dominican.
5.
At the age of 25, John Macias then started working with a wealthy businessman who offered him an opportunity to travel to South America.
6.
John Macias set out for the Americas in 1619, arriving first at Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, then Reino de Nueva Granada, before stopping by Pasto and then Quito, Ecuador, and eventually arriving in Lima, Peru where he would remain for the rest of his life.
7.
Juan John Macias was young when he set off as an emigrant for the new world.
8.
John Macias knew what it is like to plunge into the unknown.
9.
John Macias experienced the normal mixture of hopes and fears, and the difficulty of putting down roots and adapting to new ways.
10.
John Macias was one of those millions of people who down through the ages have been shuttled from one country to another, not for the fun of it, or for adventure's sake, but because they had to.
11.
John Macias entered as a lay brother, a non-ordained friar who, instead of preaching, would do the manual labor necessary in the monastery.
12.
John Macias was a contemporary of St Martin de Porres who was in the Priory of Santo Domingo,.
13.
John Macias was well known mainly for two things during his life.
14.
John Macias was greatly aided in this by a little donkey that he sent through Lima.
15.
John Macias had a small sign put on it asking for donations for the poor.
16.
At the priory, John Macias's life was filled with fervent prayer, frequent penance and charity.
17.
John Macias expressed a greater desire to spend more time in contemplative solitude rather than engage in conversational activities with others.
18.
John Macias was beatified, along with Martin de Porres, in 1837 by Pope Gregory XVI and canonized in 1975 by Pope Paul VI.