God’s Donkey walking barefoot across Texas (DRAWING BY JACK JACKSON)
GOD’S DONKEY
Without doubt, the most famous Franciscan missionary to serve in Spanish Texas was a saintly, balding man who did not enter the future Lone Star State until late in life. Father Antonio Margil’s stay in Texas was brief, especially when compared with that of his friend Father Francisco Hidalgo, whom you read about in previous chapters. Margil’s work in Mexico, as well as his contributions in Texas, were so remarkable that he is a candidate for sainthood in the Catholic Church. This good man has many admirers in Mexico and Texas who firmly believe that he performed miracles on both sides of the Río Grande.
On August 18, 1657, a son was born in Valencia, Spain, to Juan Margil and his wife, Esperanza Ros. Valencia is near the eastern coast of Spain, and it is one of that nation’s largest and most beautiful cities. It is famous for its great cathedral and its huge market, where one can buy anything from live eels to fresh flowers. Valencia is also remembered as the birthplace of the remarkable Antonio Margil de Jesús.
As a boy, Antonio showed unusual devotion to the Catholic faith. Instead of playing with other children, he built toy altars at home and prayed in front of them to the best of his ability. When not at home, Antonio walked to nearby churches and prayed before real altars in the afternoons and evenings. When custodians finally locked the doors of those churches at night, young Antonio was forced into the streets of Valencia and sent toward home.
The parents of this devout boy became increasingly concerned about his constant prayer and failure to eat regular meals. They begged him to have fun like other youngsters and not follow such a harsh routine. But Antonio replied that time seemed to fly while he prayed, and he assured his mother and father that he was not injuring his health.
Antonio followed this pattern year after year, until he became a teenager. When not quite sixteen, he asked for and received permission from his parents to enter the Franciscan Order as a novice (beginner). Novices had one year to decide whether or not they were cut out to be a religious person, and during that time Antonio passed all tests with flying colors. He prayed constantly, ate little, and wore an itchy hair shirt (made from cloth containing horsehair) to test his willingness to serve God for the rest of his life. On the afternoon of April 25, 1674, Antonio made his final decision. He would someday become a Franciscan priest.
While still a novice, a curious thing had happened that tells us much about Antonio Margil. Thinking that he was not being watched, he slipped away from his teachers one day and went to a church. Inside was a tomb (burial chamber) containing a person who had died some weeks before. Margil opened the tomb and stuck his head into the awful-smelling grave. Unknown to him, his supervisor had followed him into the church and now demanded to know what he was doing. Margil replied that he wanted to remind his “body of what it is now and what it will one day become.”
By this time in his life, Antonio Margil had already labeled himself as “Nothingness Itself.” This meant that he must never think of himself as having any value. If he accepted that he had no worth as a human being and nothing to fear in life, including his own death and rotting flesh, he could then do exactly what God wanted him to do.
As he continued his studies, Margil proved to be an excellent student, and he was especially good at theology (religious studies). More and more his teachers became convinced that this young man’s future lay as a teacher in one of Spain’s universities. Antonio would not hear of that. He already knew that he would find his calling among unschooled Indians in the New World (America), rather than in the company of learned men in the Old World (Europe).
While completing his studies for the priesthood, Margil continued to punish himself by wearing a hair shirt, and he often carried a heavy wooden cross for many hours. On one occasion, to test his will and obedience to God, he decided to let a swarm of mosquitoes bite him throughout the evening. However, he never again attempted this form of self-punishment. Margil appears to have had a severe reaction to the mosquito bites, for on the following morning “his face was so swollen and puffed up that he was hardly recognizable.”
Shortly after his twenty-fifth birthday, Margil was ordained with full powers as a priest in the Catholic Church. At that time, he took advantage of an opportunity to go to America and work among Indians. Franciscans were being recruited in Spain for a new missionary college that would be set up in the Mexican town of Querétaro, located about ninety miles northwest of Mexico City.
The ships that would transport two dozen Franciscans across the Atlantic left the port of Cádiz on March 4, 1683. En route to the Indies, as the Spanish called America, the twenty-four priests traveled on different vessels in a large fleet. This permitted them to preach to the passengers and offer comfort to the sick. The voyage turned out to be a long one, lasting for ninety-three days.
When the fleet arrived at Veracruz harbor in Mexico, pirates had just carried out a daring raid on the port city. The attackers had been interested in bars of gold and silver stacked like bricks on the docks of Veracruz. These precious metals from Mexico were to have been sent to Spain on the very ships that had carried the two dozen Franciscans across the Atlantic Ocean. Instead, Spaniards found the docks empty. The pirates had quickly placed the treasure on board their smaller, swifter ships and escaped without punishment. During their short stay in Veracruz, these vicious seamen had also robbed the people of their gold chains, jewels, and pearls. Anyone who resisted or refused to hand over their valuables was shot or stabbed on the spot.
When the Franciscan missionaries finally came ashore after more than three months at sea, they found the port of Veracruz filled with dead and dying people. Their first task was to say prayers over the dead and give what comfort they could to the wounded. For Father Margil this was a such a sad experience that he burst into tears.
After several days in Veracruz, the Franciscans were ordered to divide themselves into groups of two or three and take different roads toward Mexico City. This would permit them to preach to more people along the way. Margil and his fellow priests traveled light, carrying only a staff (walking stick), crucifix, and prayer book. As mentioned in an earlier chapter, Franciscans had to beg for their food. Their religious order instructed them to enter towns and “eat what is set before you.”
Margil and three of his companions were the first of their group to travel on to Querétaro from Mexico City. When they reached their destination, the four Franciscans began making preparations for the arrival of their companions. Once the priests were all present at their new college, named Santa Cruz de Querétaro, they began mission work among nearby Indians.
Father Antonio Margil was more devout than any of his fellow Franciscans. His self-punishment certainly seems extreme to us in our world of today. He often carried a heavy wooden cross and wore a crown of thorns. While other priests slept, he prayed through much of the night and beat himself with a whip, because he believed suffering brought him closer to God.
The young priest believed that it was also his duty to change the evil ways of sinners in Querétaro. Father Antonio walked its streets and visited the slum districts of the city. His message was always the same—it was a sin to enjoy bullfights, feasting, and dancing. It seems that Margil had some success. One traveler left the city complaining that “Querétaro is no longer Querétaro,” meaning there were not as many amusements as before.
Margil remained at his missionary college for about six months and then left for Veracruz. At the port city, he boarded a ship that took him to his new assignment in Yucatán, the land of the Maya Indians. He would spend the next thirteen years in that part of Mexico and in Central America. Margil and an older priest, who was also from Valencia, became close companions. They traveled together, preaching along the way to Indians in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Costa Rica.
While in the Chiapas region of Mexico, Margil and his friend were taken prisoner by hostile Mayas. These Indians beat the two priests and tore their garments into shreds. For five days they were given no food, and throughout that time the Mayas threatened to kill them and eat them at any moment. Each day the Mayas would examine their intended victims by feeling Margil and declaring him “all right,” but they regarded the flesh of the older priest as “spoiled.” Margil and his companion never showed any fear of death. They were so brave that the Indians finally decided to spare them. For Margil, it was one of his few religious failures. The Mayas refused to listen to his Christian message, and even he was forced to admit that “God’s hour had not yet arrived” for those Indians.
During his years in Mexico and Central America, Margil’s fame as a saintly man with unusual powers began to spread. Sick people became well by simply touching his robe. He gave cornmeal to the poor from a small cup that never seemed to be empty. In rainstorms, water would not soak through his habit (outer garment).
Perhaps equally astonishing, Margil could cover great distances in a day, although he would never ride a horse or donkey. It was at this time that Father Antonio took to calling himself “God’s donkey.” He did not believe that he deserved to ride any animal. Instead, he would always carry God’s message on foot. Margil also amazed people by never having trouble crossing rivers. When asked how he could cover such great distances without being seen on the road or getting wet crossing streams, he would smile and reply, “I have my shortcuts and God also helps me.”
After being away from Querétaro for many years, Margil returned there in 1697 to assume the position of guardian (head) of the missionary college. During his absence, his fellow Franciscans had carried the Christian message as far north as New Mexico. But little had been done in Coahuila, a province just to the south of Texas. Father Antonio intended to change that. He soon sent Father Francisco Hidalgo to that region, as well as other missionaries from the college. Their story was related in previous chapters.
Margil himself again took up God’s work in Querétaro. He built a new room at the college that was stocked with medicines to treat the sick. No one, regardless of their condition of health, was ever turned away. Also, without actually being present, Father Antonio seemed to know about the slightest misdeeds of his fellow Franciscans. To many people he seemed all-knowing.
At this time Margil began reading out loud from the writings of the mysterious Lady in Blue, whom you read about in Chapter 3. Her works and miracles in New Mexico and Texas were particularly inspiring to him. Because Father Antonio needed only about three hours of sleep at night, he had much time to read, pray, and look after the affairs of the college.
As usual, the saintly Franciscan ate little. He skipped breakfast and limited his other meals to broth and salad greens. On rare occasions when he allowed himself the pleasure of a dessert, he would always put salt on it. This was to remind him that life often includes bitter as well as sweet things.
Upon completing his three-year term as guardian, Margil again returned to take up God’s work in Central America. This time he was sent by his religious order to found another missionary college in Guatemala. He covered the long distance to that location in just six weeks, with all of the journey made on foot. When intent on getting to his destination, it seems that Father Antonio could cover about forty-five miles every day. Not only did he walk every step of the way, he always insisted on going barefoot, even over the roughest of ground. One can imagine how tough his feet became. He had calluses as thick as shoe leather, which at times had to be trimmed with a coarse wood file!
Back in Guatemala, Margil took on his role there as guardian of the new college. He helped build the church with his own hands. He assisted in the construction of living quarters for his fellow Franciscans, again with his own hands. There was no job too hard for him to perform. While he was helping workers with a heavy stone for the foundation of a building, it slipped out of the hands of workmen and appeared certain to crush a man beneath it. Margil reached down with one hand and held the stone long enough for the man to scramble to safety. Those present could not believe their eyes. The skinny Franciscan seemed to have powers that defied the laws of gravity.
One day while crossing a courtyard, ten oxen fell to their knees as if to honor Father Antonio. This embarrassed the good priest, and he quickly used his cloak to shoo the animals back to a standing position.
When the buildings of this missionary college were finished, Margil left immediately to take up work once again among the Indians of Central America. Even while away from his college, Margil followed a strict schedule of three hours of sleep at night, one hour for an afternoon siesta (nap), no breakfast, and nothing but broth and salad greens for his other meals. On this occasion he traveled to Nicaragua. When walking, Margil was seldom silent—he preferred to recite prayers and sing religious songs along the way.
In Nicaragua, Margil faced a new problem. He had to deal with witches who killed adults as well as young children and ate their flesh seasoned with chili peppers. Once again he failed, just as he had among the Mayas of Chiapas. He could not find the witches or change their evil ways.
Father Antonio returned to his college from Nicaragua in July 1703. By this time, living out of doors, walking great distances, sleeping little, and eating less had taken a heavy toll on him. He was then forty-six years of age, and his appearance was not good. People remarked that his robe was dirty and had more patches than original cloth. To those who were critical of his looks, Father Antonio replied that “everyone goes to God, some in shoes and others barefoot. There are many ways to heaven.”
Three years later, after having failed to root out still another colony of witches, Margil left Central America for the last time. By then he was almost completely bald, his feet were horribly deformed, and he walked in a stooped position.
Father Antonio was called back to Mexico to set up still another missionary college in the western part of the region. This religious house was located at the rich mining town of Zacatecas. Named Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, this Franciscan institution would later supply missionaries for Texas, including Margil himself. However, his Texas days were still many years down the road. Ahead lay the most serious failure of all, and it would nearly cost him his life.
Some Indians in the mountains of western Mexico had never been exposed to the Christian message. These Native Americans lived among spectacular gorges in rugged country and had never seen a Spaniard. Margil and a Franciscan companion accepted the challenge of bringing God’s word to these pagan (non-Christian) peoples, but they were determined to enter those lands without the protection of armed soldiers.
When he reached the region of these natives in 1711, Margil sent two Indian guides ahead of him. One of them spoke the language of these Native Americans, and it was hoped that he could pave the way for the Franciscans. Father Antonio sent a message with the guides: “No human interest brings us to preach the good news in your land, but only the desire to snatch your souls from the hands of the devil and from hell. [We will] give our lives if necessary to save your souls.”
The Indian guides were not permitted to travel far before they were stopped by hostile natives and told to turn back. So Margil’s message did not reach their chief. But the chief sent a message of his own for the two priests. “[The] Fathers should not tire themselves out. We are quite happy without any Father or Spanish officials. If you want to kill us, go ahead and kill us, but we are not going to give ourselves up so that you can make Christians of us.”
Margil did not easily accept failure, nor did he fear for his life. He and his Franciscan companion chose four Indian guides and headed into an area they had been told to stay away from. The six men had traveled only a few hours when an Indian suddenly appeared before them. He was covered with black and red paint, and he demanded to know if the Christians were armed. When the priests assured the warrior that they did not have any weapons on them, he permitted them to go forward.
Near sundown they were surrounded by more than thirty Indians, all screaming and waving arrows and knives. Margil and his companion immediately fell to their knees and spread their arms wide, thereby inviting the Native Americans to pierce them with arrows. This behavior apparently confused the warriors. They decided to spare the priests’ lives but told them that they could go no farther.
Margil returned to his college at Zacatecas and remained there for another two years. At that time, he was replaced as guardian of the missionary college. The new head of the school informed Father Antonio that he could preach in any part of Mexico that suited him. His choice was Coahuila, which would bring him to very doorstep of Texas. In January 1714, Father Antonio took the long road to the north. As usual, he traveled on foot.
By then, Margil was almost sixty years of age. He could still cover many miles in a day, but every step must have been painful. He had almost no hair, his feet were horribly deformed, and his body was permanently bent forward.
On the northern frontier, Margil arrived at the rough mining camp known as Boca de Leones (Mouth of Lions). From there he was to travel on to San Juan Bautista. At the gateway presidio near the Río Grande, he would be joined by three other priests from the college at Zacatecas. But first, Father Antonio helped round up goats, oxen, cattle, and horses that would be a part of the Domingo Ramón and Louis St. Denis expedition of 1716. Margil planned to join other Spaniards in the permanent occupation of Texas. He would be in charge of setting up missions run by priests from his college at Zacatecas.
God’s Donkey walking barefoot across Texas (DRAWING BY JACK JACKSON)
Perhaps because he needed to take care of some last-minute business, Margil remained at Boca de Leones when Ramón left for San Juan Bautista. Despite his having to travel slowly out of consideration for eight women and two children riding in ox carts, Ramón arrived at the Río Grande settlements well before Margil.
Meanwhile, Father Antonio began to make his way alone through the desert by following the tracks of the Ramón party and the more than one thousand head of livestock that accompanied it. However, the good Franciscan soon fell ill with a fever, and for the first time in his life he could not make his way across a small stream.
Stranded without food or assistance, Margil somehow got word of his situation to friends at San Juan Bautista. Three priests and two soldiers rushed to his assistance, and with difficulty they carried the seriously ill man to the Río Grande. By then, all preparations had been completed for the occupation of Texas. On April 20, 1716, Ramón crossed the Great River and waited six days for Father Antonio to recover his strength.
Far from getting better, Margil’s condition went from bad to worse. His fever was dangerously high and he appeared close to death. On the seventh day, Ramón set out for East Texas, leaving behind what all believed to be a dying priest. Instead, Margil began to get better. His recovery was slow, and it was the middle of June before he could leave San Juan Bautista for the land of the Tejas Indians.
Father Antonio arrived in East Texas in mid-July. By then, four missions had already been set up. It was agreed that the Franciscans from the colleges at Querétaro and Zacatecas would each have three religious outposts among the Indians. The priests, however, had run into unexpected problems. Although the Tejas were friendly, they would not give up their own religion and move into the missions. And the Spanish did not have the military strength to make the Indians do as they wished. So any attempts to set up two more missions seemed unwise.
The first winter in East Texas came without a single Indian living among the Franciscans, and it seemed that their effort might fail, just like the first missions in the 1690s. Renewed hope came when St. Denis returned from Louisiana with fresh supplies in late 1716. In the following spring, Father Margil and his fellow priests from Zacatecas set up two more missions.
After St. Denis left for San Juan Bautista in March 1717, Father Antonio again faced problems in East Texas. The summer of that year saw almost no rain. There were disappointing harvests of corn and beans because of the drought. The following winter was another bad one, and the Tejas simply would not enter any of the six missions.
The summer of 1718 was perhaps even drier than the previous one. Food became so short in supply that the Franciscans were forced to eat the meat of crows, which were shot from their roosts with muskets in the early mornings. The crow meat was particularly bad-tasting because the priests did not have any salt.
It was at this time that Margil performed what many in East Texas still regard as a miracle. There had been almost no rain. Crops dried up and creeks ran dry. Father Antonio prayed night and day that rain might fall, and then he received a vision and knew what to do about the drought. He walked to the banks of La Nana Creek and struck a rock twice with his staff. Two natural springs poured forth and continued to flow for years. These were called Los Ojos de Padre Margil (The Springs of Father Margil).
Throughout the hard winters and dry summers of East Texas, Margil seems to have suffered less than the other Franciscans and complained not at all. He had faced far worse during his many years in Central America. He remarked that if God was still with them in times of trouble, then it was no longer trouble but glory. Those who observed Father Antonio remarked that “he spent the days, weeks, and months absorbed in God, growing old gently.”
Meanwhile, San Antonio had been founded in 1718. In the following year, the Chicken War, which you will read about in the next chapter, swept every Spaniard out of East Texas. The six missions there were all abandoned, and Margil found himself at San Antonio by October 1719.
It occurred to the good Franciscan that San Antonio needed more than just one mission. San Antonio de Valero, later known as the Alamo, had been founded by a priest from the college at Querétaro. The Zacatecan fathers had no halfway mission between the Río Grande and East Texas, and Margil intended to change that.
Father Antonio had to have the approval of Texas’s new governor, the Marqués de San Miguel de Aguayo, to set up his new mission. He wrote a friendly letter to Aguayo, congratulating him on his appointment as governor. Margil also asked permission to name the second religious outpost at San Antonio after him. This pleased Aguayo, and he gave his full approval.
Margil quickly chose a site for his mission. It had good land nearby that could be watered by building an irrigation ditch to the San Antonio River. With the aid of the military captain at Béxar, Mission San José y San Miguel de Aguayo soon took shape. Remember that Father Antonio himself had a lot of experience in constructing new buildings, for he had done this in Guatemala, Mexico, and East Texas.
If you visit San Antonio’s five missions today, the most beautiful of them is the one founded by Margil. It would also become the most successful in terms of attracting Indian neophytes and keeping them. Over the years, Mission San José has changed a lot in appearance, as stones replaced the original structure. It first began to serve the religious needs of Indians in the area on February 23, 1720, and it stands today as perhaps the best reminder of Margil’s years in Texas.
When East Texas was again occupied by Spaniards, in 1721, Margil returned there to take up his work among the Native American population. On this occasion, he chose to live near Los Adaes presidio, which served as the capital of Texas. He regularly walked the banks of the Red River and often visited the French fort commanded by St. Denis at present-day Natchitoches, Louisiana.
The many travels of Father Antonio Margil from Central America to Texas
(CENTER FOR MEDIA PRODUCTION, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS)
As it turned out, Father Antonio’s days in Texas were soon to end. In late 1722 he learned that he had once again been appointed guardian of the college at Zacatecas. It was not the good Franciscan’s wish to return to Mexico—he had made it clear that he wished to remain in Texas for the rest of his life. But as always, Margil set aside his own desires and did what his religious superiors told him to do.
Walking barefoot every step of the way, God’s Donkey left East Texas for the last time in January 1722 and took the long road to Zacatecas in western Mexico. This journey required almost six months to complete.
In Mexico, Margil joined with his friend Félix de Espinosa of the Franciscan college at Querétaro in trying to convince the viceroy that he should give more support to the Texas missions. The viceroy listened politely to the two priests but told them that he would not spend one additional peso (dollar) on Texas. In Europe there was peace between Spain and France, so missions on the border between Spanish Texas and French Louisiana seemed less important than in earlier years.
Father Antonio served out his three-year term as guardian, although his health was failing. At times he ran a high fever, and it seemed certain he would die. But on each occasion, the good priest would recover. When he was no longer head of the college at Zacatecas, Margil continued to carry a heavy wooden cross throughout part of the day and wear a crown of thorns like Jesus.
Near the end of his life, Father Antonio went to visit old friends at the missionary college in Querétaro, which he had helped set up when he first arrived in Mexico. While there he lost consciousness and appeared certain to die. He recovered a little, only to be hit by chills and pneumonia.
Although his friends begged him not to travel alone, Margil set out for Mexico City in the summer of 1726, on foot. When it was pointed out to him that there were no doctors along the way and that he might die with no one to bury him, Father Antonio replied that he was not worried. He said, “That is what I deserve; I am not entitled to Christian burial; I ought to die out in the wild, where the beasts can devour me.”
Margil did arrive in the capital, although he was at death’s door. He asked to make a final confession before a priest, as Catholics still do today. Father Antonio was hardly guilty of sins of any importance, but he remained humble to the end. He admitted that, like all men, he had been tempted by the devil to do evil things, but God had always come to his rescue and had guided him along the right path. Otherwise, he said, he did not know what would have become of him.
Father Antonio Margil died on August 6, 1726, between one and two o’clock in the afternoon. He final words were: “It is time now to go and see God.” Two days later, his funeral was attended by the viceroy and other important officials in Mexico City.
After Margil’s death, Franciscans in Guatemala, Mexico, and Texas began to study the life and accomplishments of this good man. They believed he had performed miracles that made him a candidate for sainthood in the Catholic Church. And so began a long and difficult process that has gone on for close to three hundred years.
First of all, one must be judged to be worthy of sainthood, which is called venerable. Margil did not receive the title of “venerable” until he had been dead for 110 years. Until very recently, his body lay within a small chapel of the great cathedral of Mexico City, but members of the Franciscan Order in Zacatecas wanted his remains to be located there. His coffin was moved from the capital and now lies in the Guadalupe Friary of Zacatecas, Mexico.
Many people in Texas and Mexico continue to work to this day in an attempt to advance Margil toward sainthood. The Margil House of Studies in Houston, Texas, is very active in this effort, as are Franciscans elsewhere in the United States, in Mexico, in Guatemala, and in Rome.
It is true that only a small part of Antonio Margil’s long life was spent in Texas, but look at his accomplishments there. He set up two missions in East Texas and Mission San José in San Antonio. There are still Texans living in Nacogdoches who can take you to the banks of La Nana Creek and point out the exact location of the two springs of fresh water that poured from the rock struck with Father Antonio’s staff back in the summer of 1718. In 1999 at the annual meeting of the Texas State Historical Association in Dallas, historians discussed their research into Margil’s old mission near the East Texas town of San Augustine.
Many Texans are still determined to honor the memory of Father Antonio Margil. Whether or not he becomes a saint in the twenty-first century, his story is certainly worth studying and knowing, for Margil lived an entire life of sacrifice in the service of God.
Materials used in preparing this chapter are described below. You can find more information about these sources in the Bibliography at the end of the book.
See Donald E. Chipman and Harriett Denise Joseph’s Notable Men and Women of Spanish Texas for a more detailed biographical sketch of Margil. The most readable and accurate full-length biography of Margil is Eduardo Enrique Ríos’s Life of Fray Antonio Margil, O.F.M., translated by Benedict Leutenegger. Also of value is William H. Oberste’s The Restless Friar: Venerable Fray Antonio Margil de Jesús.
Peter P. Forrestal, translator, “The Venerable Padre Fray Antonio Margil de Jesús,” Preliminary Studies of the Catholic Historical Society 2 (April 1932): 5–34.
Quotes in this chapter are from the following sources: Peter P. Forrestal, translator, “The Venerable Padre Fray Antonio Margil de Jesús,” Preliminary Studies of the Catholic Historical Society 2 (April 1932): 6–7; Eduardo Enrique Ríos’s Life of Fray Antonio Margil, O.F.M., translated by Benedict Leutenegger; Isidro Félix de Espinosa, El peregrino septentrional atlante: Delineado en la exemplaríssima vida del Venerable Padre F. Antonio Margil de Jesús; and Letter from Margil to Huei Tacat and Other Chiefs of the Nayarit, May 9, 1711, in Nothingness Itself: Selected Writings of Ven. Fr. Antonio Margil, 1690–1724, translated by Benedict Leutenegger and edited by Marion A. Habig.