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| Personal Information |
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| Surname: Ramirez |
Given Name: José Ignacio |
Sex: M |
| Place of Birth: Puebla de Los Ángels, México |
Date of Birth: |
Order: Franciscan |
| Place of Death: San Xavier del Bac |
Date of Death: 09/26/1805 |
Cause of Death: Fever |
| Race or Tribe: Español Criollo |
Residence: Tumacácori; San Xavier |
Title: Misionero (OFM) |
| Place of Service: San Xavier del Bac; Tumacácori |
Burial Place: San Xavier del Bac |
Translation: (Spanish - son of Ramiro) |
| Notes: Born about 1770, Padre Ramirez replaced Padre Gutiérrez at Tumacácori during the winter of 1804-5. He, himself, was sickly and spent the winter battling an epidemic, burying seven people in one ten-day span. He had been at San Xavier with Father Llorens since the summer of 1802. He had joined the Franciscans at the College of Querétaro only four years before, on 11 December 1798. Prior to that he had been a grammar and philosophy teacher at Colegio Carolino in Puebla. He was an avid letter writer and wrote often to his mother and brother describing the dificulties at San Xavier: government neglect and Apache robbings and killings. When Padre Gutiérrez got back to Tumacácori in May of 1805, Padre Ramirez went back to San Xavier. There on 6 September 1805 he was seized with a fever which kept mounting until his death on 26 September. That night, as the body lay in the church at San Xavier, lighted by candles, those who kept the vigil noticed the dead friar's face and tonsure glistening. They were moist. He was sweating. A healthy color had replace the greyness of death, yet he was plainly dead. Padre Llorens conferred with two other religious, evidently Gutiérrez and Arriquibar, who planned to assist in the funeral the next day. They would not bury the body as long as the miraculous phenomenon persisted, for "without doubt God wants to manifest by that means the glory his servant is enjoying." Word spread to the Tucson Presidio and people flocked out to the mission. Hours later the sweating ceased, and only then did they lay Father Ramirez to rest. |
