Date |
Event |
1537 |
Asunción, Paraguay founded. |
1540 |
Society of Jesus (i.e., Jesuits) approved by Pope Paul III. |
1540 |
Viceroyalty of Peru established. |
1547 |
Diocese of Asunción erected; Juan de los Barrios, O.F.M. first bishop. |
1548 |
Ñuflo de Chávez first Spaniard to traverse Chiquitania, en route to Lima from Asunción. |
1549 |
Jesuits arrive in Brazil. |
1552 |
Jesuit Province of Brazil established; Manoel da Nóbrega first provincial. Diocese of La Plata (Charcas) erected; Tomás de San Martín, O.P. first bishop. |
1558 |
Spanish and Portuguese Jesuit Assistancies established. Ñuflo de Chávez makes second journey to Lima from Asunción, again traversing Chiquitania. |
1559 |
Soon-to-be Viceroy Diego López de Zúñiga petitions the Order's commissary-general, Fr. Francisco de Borga, to send Jesuits to Peru. |
1561 |
Ñuflo de Chávez founds Santa Cruz de la Sierra near present-day San José de Chiquitos. |
1568 |
Jesuit Province of Peru established, Jerónimo Ruiz del Portillo first provincial. Ñuflo de Chávez killed by hostile Itatine in ambush. |
1570 |
Mercedarians first religious order to enter eastern Bolivia. |
1572 |
Jesuits arrive in Bolivia (i.e., Upper Peru), establish first chapter house in La Paz. |
1576 |
Jesuits ordered by Viceroy Francisco de Toledo to assume control of doctrina of Juli, a town previously evangelised by Dominicans, located northwest of La Paz in present-day Peru. |
1586 |
Jesuit Frs. Diego Samaniego and Diego Martínez reach Mizque en route to Santa Cruz, in answer to petition of Governor Lorenzo Suárez de Figueroa for Jesuit missionaries. |
1587 |
Jesuits arrive in Santa Cruz. |
1587-1610 |
Jesuit Fr. Samaniego makes annual evangelisation visits to hostile Chiriguano south and west of Santa Cruz. |
1588 |
Jesuit Fr. Martínez attempts evangelization of Itatine outside of Santa Cruz. Jesuits arrive in Paraguay. |
1592 |
Jesuits establish chapter house in Santa Cruz. |
1596 |
Permission given to Jesuits to begin evangelisation of Chiquitania. Jesuits begin evangelisation of Moxos tribes (in the Beni). |
1605 |
Diocese of Santa Cruz de la Sierra erected, Antonio Calderón de León first bishop. |
1607 |
Jesuit Province of Paraguay established; Nicolas Durán first provincial. |
1609 |
Diocese of La Plata (Charcas, later Sucre) elevated to Archdiocese of La Plata. |
1609-10 |
First Jesuit reducciones founded in Argentina (San Ignacio Miní and Nuestra Señora de Loreto) and Paraguay (San Ignacio Guazú); 13 more follow in Argentina and 14 more in Paraguay. |
1610 |
Before this date, Franciscans also establish reducciones amongst Guaraní. |
1621 |
Inhabitants of Santa Cruz migrate to San Lorenzo (250 kms. west, on banks of Río Piraí); combined settlement eventually becomes present-day Santa Cruz. |
1622 |
Francis Xavier and Ignatius of Loyola canonised by Pope Gregory XV. |
1626 |
First Jesuit reducción in Brazil (San Nicolás) founded; six more follow. |
1635 |
First Jesuit martyrs in Paraguay, Frs. Antonio Ripari and Gaspar Osorio, killed by Chiriguano near Ledesma (Argentina). |
1668 |
First Jesuit temporary establishment in Moxos, Santísima Trinidad (re-established permanently in 1686).. |
1682 |
First Jesuit reducción in Moxos (Nuestra Señora de Loreto) founded; 25 more follow. |
1690 |
Jesuit Fr. José de Arce ordered to find route between Paraguay reducciones and Santa Cruz. Jesuits establish college in Tarija. |
1691 |
First Jesuit reducción in Chiquitania, San Francisco Xavier de los Piñocas (present-day San Xavier) founded; 11 more follow. |
1696 |
Second Jesuit reducción in Chiquitania, San Rafael de Velasco, founded. Battle of San Xavier results in defeat of Portuguese slave traders by combined force of Jesuit-led Piñocas and Spanish. |
1698 |
Third Jesuit reducción in Chiquitania, San José de los Borós (present-day San José de Chiquitos), founded. |
1699 |
Fourth Jesuit reducción in Chiquitania, San Juan Bautista de los Borós (later San Juan Bautista), founded. Fifth Jesuit reducción in Chiquitania, La Inmaculada Concepción (present-day Concepción), founded. |
1711 |
Death of Jesuit Fr. Lucas Caballero, first and only Jesuit martyr in Chiquitania. |
1715 |
Deaths of Jesuit Frs. de Arce and Bartolomé Blende at hands of Payagua in Paraguay, returning to Santa Cruz after having opened route between Chiquitos and Guaraní missions. |
1716 |
Route between Chiquitos and Guaraní missions closed by orders of Viceroyalty of Peru. |
1721 |
Sixth Jesuit reducción in Chiquitania, San Miguel Arcángel (present-day San Miguel de Velasco), founded. |
1723 |
Seventh Jesuit reducción in Chiquitania, San Ignacio de Zamucos, founded. |
1745 |
San Ignacio de Zamucos abandoned; most inhabitants soon migrate to San Ignacio de Loyola de Velasco. |
1747 |
Jesuit Fr. Martin Schmid begins construction of church at San Rafael. |
1748 |
Eighth Jesuit reducción in Chiquitania, San Ignacio de Loyola de Velasco (present-day San Ignacio de Velasco), founded. |
1754 |
Ninth Jesuit reducción in Chiquitania, Santiago Apóstol (present-day Santiago de Chiquitos), founded. |
1755 |
Tenth Jesuit reducción in Chiquitania, Santa Ana de Velasco, founded. |
1760 |
Eleventh Jesuit reducción in Chiquitania, Santo Corazón, founded. |
1766 |
Jesuit Fr. José Sánchez opens route between Chiquitos missions and Guaraní missions. |
1767 |
Twelfth and final Jesuit reducción in Chiquitania, Nuestra Señora de Buen Consejo (near present-day Puerto Suárez), founded; abandoned as a result of expulsion decree. Spanish King Carlos III expels Jesuits from Chiquitania. Chiquitos missions secularised, put under control of Diocese of Santa Cruz de la Sierra.. |
1768 |
Jesuits expelled from Guaraní missions. |
1773 |
Pope Clement XIV suppresses Jesuit order. |
1776 |
Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata established; colonial administration of Chiquitania transferred from Viceroyalty of Peru. |
1814 |
Jesuits restored by Pope Pius VII. |
1815 |
Massacre of Santa Bárbara (near present-day San Rafael): more than 1,000 supposedly loyalist Chiquitano killed by Ignacio Warnes. |
1825 |
Bolivia declares independence from Spain. |
1831 |
French explorer Alcides d’Orbigny first European to describe state of post-Jesuit reducciones. |
1840 |
Franciscan missionaries put in charge of Moxos and Guarayos missions. |
1848 |
Three Jesuits return to Bolivia as confessors in Franciscan monastery in Tarija. |
c. 1851 |
Final vestiges of reducción system formally abolished in Chiquitania. |
1882 |
Jesuits re-establish chapter house in La Paz. |
1931 |
Apostolic Vicariate of Chiquitos established with San Ignacio as seat; Bertoldo Bühl, O.F.M. first bishop. Austrian Franciscan missionaries put in charge of former Chiquitos reducciones. |
1939 |
Guarayos missions secularised (Moxos and Chiquitos remain under Franciscan control). |
1944 |
Diocese of Tarija erected, Juan Niccolai, O.F.M first bishop. |
1951 |
Apostolic Vicariate of Ñuflo de Chávez established with Concepción as seat; Jorge Kilian Pflaum, O.F.M. first bishop. |
1972 |
Architect and former Jesuit Hans Roth, et al. begin restoration of Chiquitos reducciones’ churches. |
1975 |
Diocese of Santa Cruz de la Sierra elevated to Archdiocese of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. |
1984 |
Moxos missions transferred to Jesuits by Franciscans, marking first permanent return of Jesuits as parish administrators to eastern Bolivia after absence of 217 years. |
1990 |
Six Chiquitos reducciones (both church and town) declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. |
1994 |
Diocese of San Ignacio de Velasco erected with San Ignacio as seat; Federico Bonifacio Madersbacher Gasteiger, O.F.M. first bishop. |
1996 |
First biennial "Missiones de Chiquitos" baroque music festival, dedicated to Jesuit missions music, held in former Jesuit redicciones throughout eastern Bolivia. |
1999 |
Hans Roth dies in Concepción, after restoring or renovating more than 125 churches and other religious edifices throughout Chiquitania, including each of those of Chiquitos reducciones. |
