Casañas de Jesũs María, Francisco, 1656?-1696.

Fray Francisco Casañas de Jesũs María (1656?-1696) was born in Barcelona, Spain to a high class family. He joined the Franciscan Monks and was one of the first members of the College of Santa Cruz de Querétaro, the first school in the New World to train missionaries, which was located in Mexico. After returning to Querétaro for a short time, Casañas de Jesũs María resumed his missionary activities in 1689, this time among the Hasinai Caddo Indians of the Nuevo León frontier. His work met with little success so he returned to Querétaro and later accompanied Alonso De León on his fifth expedition to Texas, in 1690. Casañas aided in the establishment of the first missions in East Texas and was left at San Francisco de los Tejas Mission, the first Spanish mission in East Texas, by Fray Damián Massanet. Fray Francisco Casañas de Jesũs María was killed by Apaches in 1696.