The earliest Jesuit missionaries came to the New World with determination and faith eighty-eight years after its discovery.  They came in black robes with a zeal that earned them the title “Soldiers of God,” devoting their lives to bringing the “good” news of Christianity to native populations throughout the world.  Ignatius Loyola founded the Society of Jesus, or Jesuit order, in 1540 to bring stability to the church during the Reformation.  A group of highly educated intellectuals, the order at first concentrated on missionary activity to the Holy Land.  Within two decades the Society began to spread, including education as part of its mission.

Being highly-educated men with strong opinions and loyalties, the Jesuits sometimes found themselves in conflict with politicians and military and church authorities.  They became a favorite political target, becoming ever more unpopular with the aristocracy, the wealthy and the military throughout Europe and the New World.  In the end, the Jesuits were expelled from Europe, the Americas and Asia in 1767.  Only about fifty percent of the Jesuits working in the Pimeria Alta survived the forced marches and hardships of expulsion.  The survivors then spent six to ten years under house arrest in Spain.  Five years after the expulsion, the Pope supressed the Jesuit order. Some of those who were not in prison at that time took refuge in Russia under the rule of Catherine the Great, and in Brazil, whose bishop refused to adhere to the suppression order of the Pope.  The Jesuit order remained supressed for sixty years.  Following are some of the Jesuits who served at Tumacácori and in the Pimería Alta:
 

Note:  This page is undergoing constant updating as more mission documents are translated from the original Spanish.