Luis Jayme

(October 18, 1740 – November 5, 1775), born Melcior Jaume Vallespir, was a Spanish-born Roman Catholic priest of the Franciscan Order.

[2] Born at the farm Son Baró in the village of Sant Joan, Majorca, an island in the Spanish West Mediterranean.

At the age of fifteen, Jayme entered the convent school in San Bernardino, where Fray Junípero Serra had studied some years earlier.

Following a year of strict seclusion and rigorous discipline, Jayme solemnly promised to observe the rule of the Friars Minor for the rest of his earthly lifespan; he was known as Fray Luis since then.

[8] On January 8, 1775, Serra wrote Bucarelli a letter informing him that the site of Mission San Diego had moved to a new location in August 1774.

Jayme reported in a letter dated 17 October 1772 that some soldiers had raped Kumeyaay women near the Mission San Diego.

Some military professional officers were "influenced by Enlightenment ideas about equality and liberty," so they did not agree with "the paternalism which the mission system imposed on the indigenous peoples."

[13] Local Indian people and especially the religious leaders felt the more serious threat from the Spaniards and they "believed the priests to be powerful and potentially dangerous shamans."

[15] Francisco Palóu recorded "Account of the Cruel Martyrdom of the Venerable Fr, Luis Jayme, and of the Lamentable Tragedy at Mission San Diego.

"[16] At approximately 1:30 a.m., on the moonlit morning of November 4, 1775, more than 600 warriors from the surrounding rancherías silently crept into the mission compound.

Rather than run to the stock hold for shelter, Fray Luis walked toward the band of warriors, uttering the traditional Franciscan greeting: "Amar a Dios, hijos!

The Kumeyaay seized him, stripped off his garments, shot some eighteen arrows into his torso, then smashed his face with clubs and stones.

[17] After Luis Jayme was killed, "the principal rancherías within a twenty-five-mile radius" were brought back to the Presidio jail.

Today, the remains of Fray Luis Jayme lie in a common vault between the main and side altar.