Venerable Antonio Margil of Jesus: Apostle of New Spain (Part 1)
Marian T. Horvat, Ph.D.
https://www.traditioninaction.org/Margil/AM003_Article1.htmThe life of Fr. Antonio Margil of Jesus is an epic story of a man who seems larger than life. Barefoot, carrying only a staff, breviary, and the materials he needed to say Mass, he established hundreds of missions in a territory extending from the jungles of Costa Rica to east Texas and the borders of Louisiana.
Countless Indians of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mexico and Texas received the divine gift of faith from him and revered him a saint. For this, he is called the Apostle of New Spain and Texas. (1)
The main works used in this article are, Ubaldus da Rieti, O.F.M., Life of Venerable Fr. Anthony Margil, Taken from the process for his Beatification and Canonization (Quebec/NY: Franciscan Missionary Printing Press, 1910); Eduardo Enrique Rios, Life of Fray Antonio Margil, O.F.M., trans. by Benedict Leutenegger, O.F.M. (Washington D.D.: Academy of American Franciscan History, 1959); Nothingness Itself: Select Writings of Ven Fr. Antonio Margil, O.F.M., (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1976).
The barefoot friar - famous for his missionary work and miracles
He was also an extraordinarily capable administrator and founded two colleges in Guatemala and Mexico.
His name is associated with the epoch of mission colleges, which made possible a rebirth of the Franciscan apostolate, first in Mexico, and later in Guatemala, Panama, and most of South America.
In effect, a second golden age for the Franciscans in Spanish America began with the foundation of the colleges, centers established by the Holy Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith to train new missionaries and establish mission churches and settlements.
This “barefoot friar,” famous in his time for his miracles and sanctity, converted hundreds of thousands of Indians. In Guatemala alone, it is recorded that he converted over 80,000 Indians.
He became known as the “Flying Father” because he would cover so many miles in such short periods of time it was nothing short of miraculous: it was normal for him to cover 40-50 miles a day over rough terrain, and often more.
There are written testimonies of companion brethren and soldiers who saw him, quite literally, walk on water, as he crossed swollen streams and rivers on his apostolic journeys. This capacity to pass from place to place with great speed is known as the gift of agility.
Along his travels, he cured the sick, read souls, prophesied the future. God also granted Fr. Margil the gifts of bilocation, to be present in two places at the same time, and subtility, which enabled him to enter dwellings through closed doors.
Like St. Anthony of Padua, he even received marks of veneration from animals. Once when he was directing the building of a missionary College in Guatemala, some Indians arrived with twelve cartloads of stone.
Fr. Margil addressed them and blessed them. The Indians knelt and, at the same time, the animals drawing the carts fell to their knees. It is small wonder the fame of this illustrious missionary spread far and wide.
What is more difficult to understand is why Fr. Antonio Margil is not better known today. It is my hope this article will make him better known to the North American Catholics, and that they may begin to invoke the great Apostle of Texas in their needs.
Epoch One: 1657-1684
On August 18, 1657, Antonio Margil was born in Valencia to poor but pious parents, Juan Margil and Speranza Ros. Margil was blessed from childhood with an affable and good nature.
Small of stature, the boy had a natural charm, and was attracted to practices of piety and study. Despite their humble means, his parents took care that he should receive the best education possible.
At age 15, Antonio entered the Franciscan novitiate at Corna Monastery in Valencia, and two years later made his first vows.
It was there he chose for himself the pseudonym La Misma Nada – Nothingness Itself. He made it his practice from that time on to conclude his letters by writing the words “La Misma Nada” above his name and signature.
After pronouncing final vows, he devoted himself to the study of Philosophy and Theology in the Monastery of Denia and the Royal Monastery of Valencia. During this time, he began the rigid regime he never abandoned his whole life.
Every night in the convent garden he performed the pious exercise of the Way of the Cross, carrying a heavy Cross. Afterward, he scourged his body with an iron chain, saying that a religious of St. Francis ought to be fervently devoted to the sufferings of Christ.
He practiced a poverty so exact that he often deprived himself of even the necessary things. Amiable with all, he allowed himself no particular friendships, and no shadow of singularity or affectation.
It is no surprise that after his death those who had studied with him testified that they had looked upon him as a saint even at this time.
Having completed his studies, he was ordained a priest at age 25. He had asked to remain a friar, like his holy Father Francis, considering himself unworthy of the great privilege of receiving full orders, but his superiors counseled otherwise.
The fruits of his preaching and hearing confessions began to appear very soon afterward. Great crowds gathered in the public square of Valencia to listen to him, his words arousing them to tears and repentance.
Sometime he spent whole nights in the confessional. Had he remained in Spain, it is no doubt he would have been a renowned preacher and theologian. But Fray Margil was destined for a greater and nobler mission.
To the New World
In 1682, Ven. Fr. Antonio Llinas, Franciscan superior of the American Mission, invited Fr. Margil to be his companion to open the first missionary college in New Spain at Querétaro, Mexico (200 miles north of Mexico City).
He immediately consented. Later Fr. Llinas would say that he had brought to America a second St. Anthony of Padua.
With the permission of his superiors, he made a farewell visit to his mother, worthy of mention.
She wept bitterly at thought her son was to leave her, and entreated him to consider her advanced age and wait a few years so she might have the consolation of expiring in his arms.
The son did not waver in face of these entreaties. Kindly he reminded her that from the moment she consented he should enter religion, he belonged entirely to God,
Who had called him to promote His honor and glory among the pagans. He gave her a Franciscan habit and told her to clothe herself with it and call upon him when death approached.
In fact, shortly after his departure, his mother was stricken with an illness bringing her to the point of death. She did not forget his promise and called on her son. By God’s permission, her son appeared to her, assuring her of recovery, which immediately followed.
A few years later when her end in truth approached, Fr. Antonio Margil, by a prodigy of Divine Providence, assisted at her bedside and consoled her in the hour of death in the presence of many persons, even though they were separated by an immense distance.
Epoch Two: 1683-1714 - Apostle of New Spain
The missionary travels of the barefoot friar extended throughout Central America, Mexico and up to Texas and Louisiana.
His travels in Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador
His travels to work the Indians of Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama
Maps from Nothingness Itself: Select Writings of Ven Fr. Antonio Margil, O.F.M., (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1976)
The great odyssey of evangelization began in 1684 when Fr. Margil set out from Santa Cruz College in Querétaro with another Franciscan missionary giant, Fr. Melchor Lopez, who would be his traveling companion for the next ten years.
From town to town they traveled, giving missions for a year along the shores of Guatemala. From there, they set out for provinces of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, converting many pagans along the way, and re-catechizing and increasing the fervor of those already Catholic.
Preaching to whomever they met, they walked along, praying in silence or singing. Fr. Margil always walked barefoot, but carried his sandals so he could wear them for Holy Mass out of respect for the Blessed Sacrament.
Everywhere he went, he taught his famous Alabado, a song in verse written to catechize the Indians and Spanish children. It is still remembered and sung today in parts of Mexico, Central and South America. Its last verse reads:
“Whoever seeks to follow God and strives to enter in His glory, One thing he must do and say with all his heart: Die rather than sin. Rather than sin, die!”
(End Part 1)