Tumacacori NHP: Timeline of Kino's Life

Eusebio Francisco Kino
A Timeline of His Life

Eusebio Francisco Kino was born August 10, 1645, in Segno, Italy, the only son of Francesco Chini and Margherita Lucchi.
Worked on the family farm at Moncou, Italy until it was sold in 1660
Kino registered at the college of Hall near Innsbruck, Austria, in the program of rhetoric and logic where he contracted an unidentified illness that brought him close to death. He vowed that if his patron, St. Francis Xavier, would intercede for his recovery, he would enter the Society of Jesus.
Kino transferred to Freiburg in 1664.
Entered the novitiate at Landsberg and pronounced his first vows in 1667. He then entered an intensive course of studies at Ingolstadt, beginning with philosophy, and delving into mathematics, geography, and cartography. Kino moderated a mathematics club that concentrated in the field of astronomy, and converted one of the university towers into a mini-observatory.
Minor orders were conferred in April, 1669.
Kino petitioned the order for assignment to the Americas, to China, or any other difficult foreign assignment on four separate occasions.
Ordained a priest on June 12, 1677, at Eistady, Austria
In March, 1678, Kino received notice, after his sixth petition, that he was to be assigned to the missions of the Spanish empire. Kino traveled to Munich, offsetting his travel expenses with money earned from the sale of scientific instruments he had been making.
Nineteen Jesuits, including Kino, left Genoa, Italy, for Spain, where he taught mathematics at Jesuit colleges in Seville and Puerto Santa Maria, while awaiting an America-bound armada. He learned Spanish, some Portuguese, and made scientific instruments for use in the missions.
Kino and other Jesuits spent their third winter in Seville. A brilliant comet debuted and the Jesuits used instruments of their own manufacture to speculate on the nature and meaning of the comet.
Kino left for Cadiz to board a small mail ship, part of an armada, that arrived in Veracruz, Mexico, May 3, 1681.
Kino left for Mexico City and was assigned to Atondo, the Governor of Sinaloa and the Californias, who needed the skills of Kino on an expedition to Baja California. Kino was signed on as rector of the mission and Royal Cartographer for the Californias.
His astronomical observations of two years were published in Mexico in 1682, entitled Exposicion Astronomica, bringing him into local prominence.
In April, 1683, Kino arrived at the Bay of La Paz, aboard the frigate Almiranta. Kino spent his days learning the Indian language and reaching out to the natives of the area. His job was to befriend the Indians with the necessities of life and teach them the ways of civilization and Christian doctrine, as well as draw maps for the military. Following a military altercation with the natives, the Spanish venture ended and established a new site at San Bruno in October, 1683. As Royal Cartographer, Kino mapped the area and befriended the natives in the San Bruno area.
On August 15, 1684, Kino took his final vows in the Society of Jesus.
In December, 1684, Atondo and Kino, with their party, were the first Europeans to cross Baja California by land, arriving at what is known today as San Gregorio. Kino continued to develop maps of the explorations, but San Bruno was abandoned in May, 1685.
In 1686, Kino was given permission to establish three missions. Traveling inland in Sonora, he established his first mission, Nuestra Señora de los Dolores, at Cosari, his second mission at Carburica, and his third at Ímuris -- all within just a few days. Under Father Kino, gardens and cattle-raising were established, river lands were cleared and planted, and chapels were built. Additionally, he promoted apprenticeships of artisans and similar trades.
Kino continued to establish a chain of missions on his seventy-five mile circuit -- San Ignacio, Magdalena, San Xavier del Bac, Cocóspera, Caborca, Tumacácori, and Tucson, with much success in Christianizing the natives.
In 1687, the church was completed at Dolores, the site which became Kino’s main base. Father Visitor Gonzalez, in 1689, upon visiting the area, declared that he'd never seen such growth and expansion in such a short time, resulting in the addition of four more Jesuits assigned to the missions.
In 1691, accompanied by Padre Juan Maria Salvatierra, empowered as Jesuit Visitor General, Kino and Salvatierra were met at Tumacácori, where Pimas carrying crosses and flowered arches appealed for Jesuits to reside in their villages.
In December, 1692, Father Kino, accompanied by Fathers Campos and Leal, explored the Altar River. They arrived at Cerro El Nazareno overlooking California. Upon his return, he established Nuestra Señora de la Purisma Concepción in Caborca.
In November, 1694, Kino explored the Gila River up to the Casa Grande ruins.
Father Kino re-established peace in the Pimeria Alta in April, 1695, following the murder of Padre Saeta at Caborca and rebellions at Tubutama and Oquitoa.
In January, 1696, Padre Kino, while in Mexico City, received authorization to be assigned six months in the Pimeria Alta and six months in California. While there, Kino also had five new missionaries assigned to the Pimeria.
Father Kino made several incursions north with the Sobaipuris, exploring the Santa Maria and San Pedro Rivers, as far as its merger with the Gila River.
In the fall, 1698, Kino mounted an 800 mile, three week expedition, with the intention to survey the Gulf coast where he sighted for the first time the Gulf of California, also resulting in an expedition on the Gila River.
In 1699, Kino and Manje, while resting at a Yuman village just east of the Gila Range, were presented with beautiful blue shells that Kino recognized as coming from the “opposite” shores of the Pacific. In April, 1700, Kino convened a “Blue Shell Conference” where chiefs and couriers indicated that the blue-crusted abalone didn't occur in the Gulf waters, but had been traded hand to hand from the distant Pacific. Father Kino heads towards this area, leading to his discovery of California.
Padre Kino received permission to be transferred to Bac which would be closer to his mission expansion to the northwest, but he needed to wait for a replacement-- a replacement that never came.
Padre Kino was named Procurator of the northwest missions in 1706 -- an official recognition of what he had been doing for years.
Kino dedicated the newly completed chapel at Magdalena, became weak, and died about midnight, March 15, 1711.
On February 15, 1965, Father Kino’s statue, representing the state of Arizona, was unveiled in Washington’s Capitol Rotunda.
In May, 1966, Kino’s remains were found in the city of Magdalena de Kino, Sonora, by a group of researchers from Mexico and the United States.
On May 2, 1971, a monumental square in memory of Father Kino was inaugurated in Magdalena, Sonora, Mexico.