PARAGUAY, 1956, the 4th centenary of the death of Ignatius Loyola,
Scott 521, 524
These stamps bear portraits of St. Roque Gonzalez with St. Ignatius (the second
value also shown imperf)/
St. Roque Gonzalez de Santa Cruz was born in Asunción in 1576 and was ordained at the age of 22. Some ten years later he entered the Society, and from then on spent his life seeking out the natives, converting them, teaching them and settling them in townships. It was he who organized and built San Ignacio Guazú. From there he moved up toward the Paraná River, and for 10 years did extraordinary work as missionary and explorer, founding many villages in what is now Argentina. Of Jesuit goals in the reductions he said, "We work for justice. The Indians need to be freed from the slavery and harsh personal servitude in which they now exist. In justice they are exempt from this by natural, divine, and human law." In the last years of his life he had the aid of St. Juan del Castillo, SJ and St. Alonso Rodríguez, SJ. An native witch doctor named Nazu hatched a plot to kill all three. On 15 December 1628 Gonzalez and Rodriguez were slaughtered, their bodies mutilated and burned. Two days later the assailants caught del Castillo and killed him with appalling tortures. Gonzales is the first person born in the Americas to be canonized.
PARAGUAY, 1992, this stamp in honor of Gonzalez was later overprinted
for Christmas, Scott 2412, 2421
The crowned 500 with intersecting hemispheres symbolizes the 5th centenary
of the discovery of America.
