Killed Padre San Vitores

History will remember Mata’pang as the man responsible for murdering Father Diego Luís de San Vitores, the Spanish Jesuit priest who brought Christianity to the Marianas. However, knowledge about the context and motivations for the act have changed throughout the years. A beach near where the killing took place, along Guam’s west coast at Tumon Bay, was named in his honor. Mata’pang is also a contemporary phrase that means silly or tasteless in Chamorro.

At first a Christian convert, Mata’pang eventually turned his back on Christianity, along with many other Chamorros. Baptized and thought to have been cured from an illness by San Vitores, the Spanish hoped to bring him back to the church. The Spanish used the birth of Mata’pang’s daughter to approach the Tumon leader. On April 2, 1672, San Vitores, along with Pedro Calangsod (also spelled Calangsor), a man who had served with the priest for four years, visited Mata’pang’s home with the intention of baptizing his daughter.

Mata’pang was infuriated by their actions, particularly because it was thought by many Chamorros that the baptismal water was poisonous. He enlisted the aid of another man, Hirao, to kill San Vitores. As San Vitores and Calangsod fell at their hands, San Vitores did not attempt to protect himself, instead praying for his slayers.

Mata’pang weighted the bodies and tossed them into the sea. He then set a fire where the stabbings had taken place. Following a brief skirmish with the San Vitores search party, Mata’pang fled to Rota.

Prior to the attack, the Spanish had been on a christianizing mission. Following the murders, however, christianizing the Chamorros became a military endeavor and the Chamorro rebellion intensified. Captain Juan de Santiago was sent to Guam in search of vengeance for the priest’s death by burning village houses and canoes to prevent the Chamorros from escaping.

In 1680, Governor Jose de Quiroga was sent to the Marianas to quash the rebellion. An attack fleet was initially sent to Rota where Mata’pang was living. The violent threat of Quiroga led island leaders on Rota to turn on Mata’pang. Stabbing him and putting him in a boat, he died on the way back to Guam.

By Nicholas Y. Quinata

For further reading

Aguon. Katherine B. Commentary. “Ancient Chamorro Leaders of Guahan.” Guahan Magazine (June 2007). Also available online at Guahan Magazine (accessed April 9, 2008).

Benavente, Eddie L.G. I Manmaga’lahi yan I Manma’gas – Geran Chamoru yan Espanot, 1668-1695. N.p.: Eddie L.G. Benavente, 2007.

Hezel, Francis. “From Conversion to Conquest: The Early Spanish Mission in the Marianas.” Journal of Pacific History 17 (1982): 3-4; 115-37. Also available online at Micronesian Seminar (accessed April 2, 2008).

Le Gobien, Charles. Histories des Isles Marianes. Paris: 1700. A manuscript translated into English is available at the University of Guam Richard F. Taitano Micronesian Area Research Center.

Levesque, Rodrigue, comp. and ed. History of Micronesia: A Collection of Source Documents. Vols. 1 – 13. Gatineau, Quebec: Levesque Publications, 1992-.

Political Status Education Coordinating Commission. Hale-ta – I Manfåyi: Who’s Who in Chamorro History. Vol. 1. Hagåtña: Political Status Education Coordinating Commission, 1995.

Risco, Alberto. The Apostle of the Marianas: The Life, Labors and Martyrdom of Venerable Diego Luis de San Vitores, 1627-1672. Translated by Juan M. H. Ledesma. [Hagåtña?]: Diocese of Agana, 1970.

Rogers, Robert F. Destiny’s Landfall: A History of Guam. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1995.