Antonio Ruiz de Montoya

Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, SJ (13 June 1585 – 11 April 1652) was a Jesuit priest and missionary in the Paraguayan Reductions.

[1] When the missions of Guayra were endangered by the incursions of Paulistas from Brazil in search of slaves, Mazeta and Montoya resolved to move the Christian Indians, about 15,000 in number, to the reductions in Paraguay, partly by water with the aid of seven hundred rafts and numberless canoes, and partly by land through the forest.

[1] In 1637 Montoya (on behalf of the governor, the Bishop of Paraguay, and the heads of the orders) laid a complaint before Philip IV of Spain as to the Portuguese policy of sending kidnapping expeditions into the neighboring regions.

These are: Marion Mulhall calls Ruiz de Montoya's grammar and vocabulary "a lasting memorial of his industry and learning".

A collected edition of all Montoya's works was published at Vienna under the supervision of the Vicomte de Porto Seguro in 1876.

[1] Of much importance as one of the oldest authorities for the history of the Reductions of Paraguay is Montoya's work, Conquista espiritual hecha por los religiosos de la C. de J. en las provincias del Paraguay, Paraña, Uruguay y Tape (Madrid, 1639), in quarto; a new edition was issued at Bilbao in 1892.