Friar Juan de Padilla, born in Andalusia – Spain, was a Catholic missionary who spent much of his life exploring North America working so that native tribes had the opportunity of knowing and serving Christ, establishing the first Christian mission in Kansas.
During a missionary trip to north-east territories, he was reached for a group of native savages, who attacked and kill him while he was knelt in prayer, throwing afterward his body into a mine whose location remains uncertain.