GREAT PROTECTOR OF THE NATIVES

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Don Vasco de Quiroga, who came to Mexico as a member of the Second Audience, was appointed first bishop of Michoacán due to his nobility of feelings, a position he assumed in 1538 in Tzintzuntzan, which at that time was the capital of the Purepecha kingdom.

A year later he moved the episcopal see to Pátzcuaro, considering it a more suitable place to erect the cathedral (now the Basilica of Our Lady of Health) that he designed. He also founded the Colegio de San Nicolás Obispo.

Years later both the cardinal headquarters and the college moved to Valladolid, today Morelia.

Don Vasco is considered the most notable pacifist and evangelizer of New Spain. He deeply loved the indigenous people of the region and sowed the conscience of family and people among them. Michoacanos still venerate him as Tata -Father-Vasco.

Vasco de Quiroga square
It is distinguished, like few others in the world, not only for its beauty, but for being surrounded only by civil constructions.

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