Alexandre Coello de la Rosa is Professor of History in the Department of Humanities at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, Spain).

In the past decades historians have interpreted early modern Christian missions not simply as an adjunct to Western imperialism, but as a privileged field for cross-cultural encounters. This book is framed within the process of historiographical renovation of the scholarship on the early modern Christian missions in the Pacific, studying the complexities of Jesuit missionisation in the Micronesian islands of Guam and the Marianas. It grounds the analysis in the transoceanic relationship of the archipelago and the Viceroyalty of New Spain, which included the Philippines. It also shows the resistance and adaptive capacity of Chamorro culture that enabled its members to adjust to outside influences and to construct new identities.

Preface. Francis X. Hezel, SJ. Acknowledgments. Introduction Part I: Colonization and Sanctity in the Marianas 1. The Blood of Martyrs (1668-1676) 2. The Soldiers of Gideon (1677-1699) Part II: From the Marianas' Crisis to Salvationist Utopia 3. Corruption, Greed and the Public Good (1700-1730) 4. From Christian Universalism to Jesuit Cosmopolitanism: The Caroline Islands (1700-1735) 5. Transoceanic Bigamists (1700-1747) Part III: The Baroque Representation of Power 6. Phoenix in the Marianas (1747) Part IV: The Jesuits Under Suspicion 7. Lights and Shadows: The Inquisitorial Process Against the Jesuit Congregation of Nuestra Señora de la Luz (1758-1776). Afterword.