Juan Agustín Morfi was a
Franciscan friar, born in Asturias, Spain, in 1735, who died in Mexico, New Spain, in 1783. He is considered the most important chronicler and historian of the
New Philippines;[a] Mariano Errasti ranks Morfi among the most prodigious figures in five centuries of Franciscan work in America.[2]: 205
Early life
Born in
Oviedo, his exact date of birth is not known, but his admission document into the
Convento Grande de San Francisco in Mexico in 1760 records he was 25 at the time, indicating a birth date around 1735. His parents were Juan Morfi, an Irishman, and Maria Antonia Cortina, a Spaniard. He had siblings, but nothing else is known of them with certainty.[1] He arrived in America between 1755 and 1756.[2]: 185 He was ordained a
Franciscan friar on May 3, 1761.[3]
Morfi's personal library at his death comprised over a hundred manuscripts and over a hundred books, over eighty of which he had ordered from Spain. He carried forty books during his travels with de Croix.[2]
He consulted at least 200 government and Franciscan documents, from 70 different authors,[4] and he added his keen observations to frankly chronicle life in northern New Spain. He wrote in 1782, for instance, that the Hopi of the Rio Grande were better off, despite having maintained independence from Spanish rule, than other tribes which had not.[5]
Death
He died at 48 years of age on October 20, 1783 at the same Convento Grande de San Francisco where he was ordained.[1]
Written works
Tractus de Fide, Spe, et Charitate, 1766
Relación geográfica e histórica de la provincia de Texas o Nuevas Filipinas, 1673-1779. Translated by
Carlos Castañeda as "History of Texas: 1673-1779. By fray Juan Agustin Morfi. Missionary, Teacher, Historian". 2 volumes, Albuquerque, 1935
Memorias para la historia de Texas o Nuevas Filipinas
Viaje de Indios y Diario del Nuevo México
Diario y derrotero, 1771-1781
La seguridad del patrocinio de María Santísima de Guadalupe. México, 1772
Diálogos sobre la elocuencia en general y sobre la del Púlpito en particular del señor Arzobispo de Cambrai con la Carta de éste sobre la Poesía y la Historia. 2 volumes, Madrid, 1795
Surviving sermons
To the Virgin of Guadalupe (1772)
La nobleza y piedad de los Montañeses (1775)
Notes
^"se trata del principal historiador y cronista de la provincia de Nuevas Filipinas"[1]