Johann Jakob Baegert

Who was Johann Jakob Baegert?

Johann Jakob Baegert was a Jesuit missionary at San Luis Gonzaga in Baja California Sur, Mexico. He is noted for his detailed and acerbic account of the peninsula, the culture of its native inhabitants, and the history of its Spanish exploration and missionization.

Baegert was born in Sélestat, Alsace, the son of a leather worker. Of his three brothers and three sisters, two brothers and two sisters also entered religious orders, and the third brother was a secular priest. Baegert began his Jesuit novitiate at Mainz in 1736 and received further training at Mannheim and Molsheim. After serving briefly as a professor at the college in Haguenau, he was assigned to missionary work in the New World. He went by way of Genoa and Cadiz to Veracruz, Mexico City, and finally Baja California in 1749-1751. Baegert's travels across Europe as well as his experiences in Mexico and Baja California were described in ten letters he wrote to his family.

The new missionary was assigned to work among the Guaycura at Mission San Luis Gonzaga.