Padre Kino And The Trail To The Pacific by Jack Steffan

Paperback: This adventure-packed and inspiring story of the American Southwest is the true account of missionary and explorer Padre Eusebio Francisco Kino (1645-1711) who brings his message of fellowship and peace to the 17th century frontier as he encounters its dangers and violence.

Father Kino’s greatest wish was to be sent from his Italian mountain home to China as a missionary - to follow in the footsteps of his hero St Francis Xavier. 

Instead he was sent to Mexico where his great work was the mapping and exploration of Pimería Alta (now Sonora, Mexico and sourthern Arizona, US). 

He became father and hero to the Pima nations, building twenty-nine missions. 

He was tirelessly in pursuit of the kingdom of God, battling the forces of nature and the Spanish colonists for the dignity of the Pima people. 

His life was devoted to God and to his fellow man - a life, as he described it, full of Heavenly Favours. 

This revised edition (1960, 2014), published by the Kino Heritage Society, will introduce you to "the noblest Southwestern of all" - a man of action and of faith - whose life is revered to this day by the people of Arizona, Sonora and the Californias. It features illustrations by Anthony D'Adamo and a fold-out map entitled The Pimería Alta of Father Kino. The Pimería Alta is the name Padre Kino gave to the land where the O'odham (Pima) speaking people lived that we now know as Southern Arizona and Northern Sonora.

The Kino Heritage Society promotes the enduring legacy of Padre Eusebio Francisco Kino SJ. To learn more about Padre Kino and the Kino Heritage Society, visit its website at www.padrekino.com

The Roman Catholic Church has begun its consideration of the formal recognition of Kino as one of its saints.

About the author: Jack Steffan is the pen name of author Alice Jacqueline Steffan. Steffan brings alive Kino and his times in her engaging and historically accurate depiction of the key events in Kino's last thirty years in the Sonoran Desert. She was inspired to write about Padre Kino when she visited Tucson and saw its stunning and world renowned Mission San Xavier del Bac.