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Father Padilla Cross

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HISTORY

Father Padilla Cross

Lyons, KS | Rice County

From Grand, 4 miles west on U.S. 56. This large concrete cross was erected in 1950 in memory of Father Juan de Padilla, the first Christian martyr in the United States, and in remembrance of the first cross that Coronado erected on the Great Plains. Padilla met the Quiviran Indians in 1541 when he came through the area with Coronado. He returned as a missionary in 1542 only to be slain by hostile Indians that same year. South of the cross once stood a large Quiviran village; its lodges were similar to those replicated in the Coronado Quivira Museum.

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