A Rediscovered Catechism: Fray Francisco Pareja’s Literary Works and the IIII. parte de catechismo en lengua timuquana y castellana en que se trata el modo de oyr missa, y sus ceremonias

In the early 1600s Fray Francisco Pareja, in collaboration with anonymous indigenous co-authors, composed a series of bilingual (Spanish/Timucua) catechetical texts as a Franciscan missionary in La Florida that were published in Mexico City. In 2019 a previously unknown liturgical catechism by these authors, IIII. parte de catechismo en lengua timuquana y castellana en que se trata el modo de oyr missa, y sus ceremonias, dated 1628, was found in the Library at All Souls College in Oxford, England. The last Spanish/Timucua text scholars discovered was the Arte de la lengua timuquana from 1614, which was published in 1886. This essay examines the rediscovered liturgical catechism in the context of Franciscan efforts to construct a textual community, embodied in worship, among the Spanish and Timucua Christians of La Florida.