Eusebio Kino, born (date unkown) Eusebius Franz…

Eusebio Kino, born (date unkown) Eusebius Franz Kühn (or Kuehn; the name Kino was the version for use in Spanish-speaking domains; other sources cite his name as Eusebio Francesco Chini), was baptized on August 10, 1645 in Taio, Val di Non, Bishopric of Trent (present-day Italy), which explains why sources differ as to Kino’s nationality.

Educated in Innsbruck, Austria, Kino had joined the Society of Jesus on November 20, 1665 after recuperating from a serious illness.

He had received religious training from 1664 to 1669 hat Freiburg, Ingolstadt, and Landsberg, Bavaria, and had taken his vows as a priest on June 12, 1677.

Although Kino had wanted to go to the Orient, he had been sent instead to New Spain.

Due to travel delays across Europe, he had missed the ship on which he was to travel and had to wait a year for another ship.

While waiting in Cadiz, Spain, he had written of his observations of a comet, Exposción Astronómica de el Cometa.

This volume will later be the subject of a sonnet by Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz.

Kino's first assignment had been to lead the Atondo expedition to the Baja California peninsula of the Las Californias Province of New Spain, where he had established the Misión San Bruno in 1683.

After a prolonged drought there in 1685, Kino and the Jesuit missionaries were forced to abandon the mission and return to the viceregal capital of Mexico City.

Father Kino on the morning of March 14, 1687, leaves Cucurpe, a town once considered the "Rim of Christendom, to begin his career in the Pimería Alta (upper land of the Pimas) at the request of the natives.