Jacob Dacian
Encyclopedia
Brother Jacob the Dacian, Jacobo Daciano, or in Latin
Iacobus de Dacia
, (Copenhagen
c. 1484 – Michoacán
, Mexico
, 1566) was a Danish
Franciscan
monk and probable Prince of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. He also called himself Iacobus Gottorpius referring to a royal estate at Gottorp
under Danish rule during his lifetime. He achieved fluency in eight languages and fame among the indigenous people
of Michoacán as a righteous and helpful man toward his flock. His relics, now lost, were kept for a long time by the Indians of Tarecuato who still celebrate his birthday every year.
and a younger brother of King Christian II
, both Danes. This has not been asserted or even mentioned by all historians but it is also the basis for the novel Brother Jacob by Danish author Henrik Stangerup. Key arguments in a case for Jacob's royal lineage are the facts that he described himself as coming from Gottorp, the estate of Kings Christian I
and John of Denmark; that he had an excellent education normally reserved for the higher nobility; and that he seemed to enjoy protection from higher political forces. It was also common for younger sons of royalty to enter into the clergy, since they normally would not inherit the thrones. However, Jacob's position as an inter-continental missionary was very unusual for a royal prince.
A number of modern authors have counted Jacob - or James - as a Danish-Norwegian-Swedish prince and one of the legitimate children of King John and Queen Christina
.
, Greek
and Hebrew as well as his mother tongues German
and Danish
. In the years prior to the reformation he lived in a convent in Malmö
(now in Sweden
), where he argued against the Lutheran
leaders. In 1530 the Fransciscans were driven from the convent, as they were in the following from the other Danish towns. He described this in the Chronicle of the expulsion of the Greyfriars, written to serve as evidence in a potential trial to attempt to reclaim the convents later. Such a trial never came. During the religious wars known as the Count's Feud
, fought between the supporters of his deposed brother, the Catholic King Christian II, and the forces of King Christian III of Denmark
, many Franciscans left Denmark and went to Catholic provinces in northern Germany.
Jacob stayed in Denmark until the fall of Malmö in 1536 when the region's Lutheran Reformation was completed and the proscription of Mendicant orders
forced him into exile. First he went to Mecklenburg
under the protection of Duke Albrecht who had fought on the Catholic side in the civil war. Here he was made the last Provincial (head) of the Franciscan province of Dacia, whence his name. He subsequently went to Spain
where he studied the Arabic language
and was authorized by King Charles V of Spain
to go to New Spain as a missionary.
, Mexico, to remain in Mexico for the rest of his life, where he learned several indigenous languages and founded several convents. He spent three years at the Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco
studying Nahuatl
before being sent to Michoacán to work among the native P'urhépecha
, where the bulk of his missionary work was done. He learned the P'urhépecha language
and worked stubbornly to improve Indian rights, which caused him problems with the authorities of New Spain and with local branches of the church. He wrote a treatise, Declamacion del pueblo barbaro de los Indios, que habiendo recibido el bautismo, desean recibir los demas sacramentos, in which he argued that Indians should be allowed to be ordained into the priesthood. In this question he was overruled by church authorities and had to do penitence for these actions - he had claimed that denying Indians the right to ordination was in fact tantamount to heresy
, a standpoint which has been vindicated in the modern Roman Catholic Church.
He died in the convent of Tarecuato, Michoacán, in the bishopric of Zamora
where he had served as a guardian. Beginning in 1996 attempts have been made toward his canonization
.
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
Iacobus de Dacia
Dacia (disambiguation)
Roman Dacia is , an ancient Roman province in modern Romania, after year 106 until 275 ....
, (Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
c. 1484 – Michoacán
Michoacán
Michoacán officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Michoacán de Ocampo is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 113 municipalities and its capital city is Morelia...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, 1566) was a Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
monk and probable Prince of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. He also called himself Iacobus Gottorpius referring to a royal estate at Gottorp
Gottorp
Gottorf Castle is a castle and estate in the city of Schleswig, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is the ancestral home of the Holstein-Gottorp branch of the House of Oldenburg...
under Danish rule during his lifetime. He achieved fluency in eight languages and fame among the indigenous people
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
of Michoacán as a righteous and helpful man toward his flock. His relics, now lost, were kept for a long time by the Indians of Tarecuato who still celebrate his birthday every year.
Royal descent
Danish historian Jørgen Nybo Rasmussen (Rasmussen 1974) argues that Jacob was the son, seemingly extramarital, of King John of the Kalmar UnionKalmar Union
The Kalmar Union is a historiographical term meaning a series of personal unions that united the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway , and Sweden under a single monarch, though intermittently and with a population...
and a younger brother of King Christian II
Christian II of Denmark
Christian II was King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden , during the Kalmar Union.-Background:...
, both Danes. This has not been asserted or even mentioned by all historians but it is also the basis for the novel Brother Jacob by Danish author Henrik Stangerup. Key arguments in a case for Jacob's royal lineage are the facts that he described himself as coming from Gottorp, the estate of Kings Christian I
Christian I of Denmark
Christian I was a Danish monarch, king of Denmark , Norway and Sweden , under the Kalmar Union. In Sweden his short tenure as monarch was preceded by regents, Jöns Bengtsson Oxenstierna and Erik Axelsson Tott and succeeded by regent Kettil Karlsson Vasa...
and John of Denmark; that he had an excellent education normally reserved for the higher nobility; and that he seemed to enjoy protection from higher political forces. It was also common for younger sons of royalty to enter into the clergy, since they normally would not inherit the thrones. However, Jacob's position as an inter-continental missionary was very unusual for a royal prince.
A number of modern authors have counted Jacob - or James - as a Danish-Norwegian-Swedish prince and one of the legitimate children of King John and Queen Christina
Christina of Saxony
Christina of Saxony , was a Saxon princess who became Queen consort of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. She was born a granddaughter of Frederick the Gentle of Saxony, and daughter of Ernest, Elector of Saxony and Elisabeth of Bavaria.-Biography:She was married to John, King of Denmark, Norway and...
.
Life in Denmark until the Reformation
Entering the Franciscan Order as a young man, Jacob received a good education studying LatinLatin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
and Hebrew as well as his mother tongues German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
and Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
. In the years prior to the reformation he lived in a convent in Malmö
Malmö
Malmö , in the southernmost province of Scania, is the third most populous city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg.Malmö is the seat of Malmö Municipality and the capital of Skåne County...
(now in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
), where he argued against the Lutheran
Lutheranism
Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...
leaders. In 1530 the Fransciscans were driven from the convent, as they were in the following from the other Danish towns. He described this in the Chronicle of the expulsion of the Greyfriars, written to serve as evidence in a potential trial to attempt to reclaim the convents later. Such a trial never came. During the religious wars known as the Count's Feud
Count's Feud
The Count's Feud , also called the Count's War, was a civil war that raged in Denmark in 1534–36 and brought about the Reformation in Denmark...
, fought between the supporters of his deposed brother, the Catholic King Christian II, and the forces of King Christian III of Denmark
Christian III of Denmark
Christian III reigned as king of Denmark and Norway. He was the eldest son of King Frederick I and Anna of Brandenburg.-Childhood:...
, many Franciscans left Denmark and went to Catholic provinces in northern Germany.
Jacob stayed in Denmark until the fall of Malmö in 1536 when the region's Lutheran Reformation was completed and the proscription of Mendicant orders
Mendicant Orders
The mendicant orders are religious orders which depend directly on the charity of the people for their livelihood. In principle, they do not own property, either individually or collectively , believing that this was the most pure way of life to copy followed by Jesus Christ, in order that all...
forced him into exile. First he went to Mecklenburg
Mecklenburg
Mecklenburg is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern...
under the protection of Duke Albrecht who had fought on the Catholic side in the civil war. Here he was made the last Provincial (head) of the Franciscan province of Dacia, whence his name. He subsequently went to Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
where he studied the Arabic language
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
and was authorized by King Charles V of Spain
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...
to go to New Spain as a missionary.
Missionary to Mexico
In 1542 Brother Jacob arrived in VeracruzVeracruz
Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave , is one of the 31 states that, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided in 212 municipalities and its capital city is...
, Mexico, to remain in Mexico for the rest of his life, where he learned several indigenous languages and founded several convents. He spent three years at the Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco
Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco
The Real Colegio de Santa Cruz in Tlatelolco, Mexico, was the first European school of higher learning in the Americas. The school was built by the Franciscan order on the initiative of Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza and Bishop Juan de Zumárraga on the site of an Aztec school, for the children of nobles...
studying Nahuatl
Nahuatl
Nahuatl is thought to mean "a good, clear sound" This language name has several spellings, among them náhuatl , Naoatl, Nauatl, Nahuatl, Nawatl. In a back formation from the name of the language, the ethnic group of Nahuatl speakers are called Nahua...
before being sent to Michoacán to work among the native P'urhépecha
P'urhépecha
The P'urhépecha, normally spelled Purépecha in Spanish and in English and traditionally referred to as Tarascans, are an indigenous people centered in the northwestern region of the Mexican state of Michoacán, principally in the area of the cities of Uruapan and Pátzcuaro...
, where the bulk of his missionary work was done. He learned the P'urhépecha language
P'urhépecha language
P'urhépecha is a language isolate or small language family spoken by more than 100,000 P'urhépecha people in the highlands of the Mexican state of Michoacán...
and worked stubbornly to improve Indian rights, which caused him problems with the authorities of New Spain and with local branches of the church. He wrote a treatise, Declamacion del pueblo barbaro de los Indios, que habiendo recibido el bautismo, desean recibir los demas sacramentos, in which he argued that Indians should be allowed to be ordained into the priesthood. In this question he was overruled by church authorities and had to do penitence for these actions - he had claimed that denying Indians the right to ordination was in fact tantamount to heresy
Heresy
Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...
, a standpoint which has been vindicated in the modern Roman Catholic Church.
He died in the convent of Tarecuato, Michoacán, in the bishopric of Zamora
Roman Catholic Diocese of Zamora in Mexico
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Zamora is a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Morelia.-Ordinaries:*José Antonio de la Peña y Navarro *José María Cázares y Martínez...
where he had served as a guardian. Beginning in 1996 attempts have been made toward his canonization
Canonization
Canonization is the act by which a Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process...
.