Residence: San Ignacio

Race or Tribe:  Suizo (Swiss)

Notes:  Born in northern Switzerland, Padre Stiger was described as tall with dark hair and a scar between his eyebrows.  He was ordained on Whitsunday's Eve in 1719.  He served as a parish priest in Switzerland and entered La Compania de Jesus on October 9, 1725.  He came to New Spain in 1730 with twenty-six other missionaries.  He went first to Carichic Mission among the Tarahumaras in 1731.  After Grazhoffer's death at Guevavi, he went to Bac and Segesser went from Bac to Guevavi.  After Segesser left Guevavi, Stiger ministered Guevavi from Bac.  When Campos was removed from San Ignacio and after Segesser had served there for nearly a year, Stiger replaced him and stayed twenty-five years until his death there.  He was buried in the sanctuary in front of the main altar on the Gospel side by Padre Pauer.  Father Pauer recorded the following at his burial: "On April 24, [1762], at two o'clock in the afternoon, Father Gaspar Stiger, a Swiss native from the Diocese of Constancia, died in peaceful tranquility, having received the last of the Holy Sacraments.  He was born on October 21 in the year of 1695.  A secular cleric, he was ordained a priest on the Penticostal Sabath in the year 1719, and after six years as a parish priest in his homeland, he joined the Company of Jesus on October 9, 1725, in which he served with fervor.  It followed that he came to the missions of the Indies in the year 1729.  He arrived first at the Mission of Carichiqui, where he was sent by his superiors in the year 1731.  After two years as the missionary there, he was sent by  the Provincial Father, at the request of the Most Illustrious Señor Don Martín de Lisacoechea, Bishop of Durango, to the Pimería Alta and the new Mission of San Xavier del Bac. There, envious of his declaration of the glory of God and his faith in Jesus Christ, the Devil counseled the Indian witch doctors (hechiceros) to kill him.  Though they tried on three occasions, it followed that they were unable to do so.  God preserved him with His singular providence through the medium of Padre Agustín de Campos, and although he was cleansed of the witchcraft he remained injured all of his life.  The three malefactors came to an unfortunate end: one was was overcome by the Devil; another quickly fell dead; and the third was killed by his own family.  In the year 1736 he obediently entered the Mission of San Ignacio, which was nearly devoid of people because of the continuous epidemics of small pox and measles and mass movements of the people.  However, through his Holy Zeal and unbounded charity, he repopulated the three towns from the Papaguería.  Indeed, there were ten families here when he arrived and there are more than a hundred families now at his death.  He manifested the same zeal in gathering souls for God.  Upon his arrival as a new missionary he breathed and succored everything necessary for the mainenance and subsistance of the missions.  In short, he is credited with being a father to the poor and a great giver of alms.  (This last statement is written in Latin as follows: "Pater pauperum et magnus elemonsarius dictus et creditus")  He was buried beneath the steps of the main altar, on the gospel side in line with where the Mass is celebrated.