Eight Spanish Jesuits who sailed up Virginia's James River in 1570 to convert American Indians and were killed by Indians are being promoted for sainthood by the Diocese of Richmond.

Bishop Walter F. Sullivan, DD, announced the formation of a tribunal that will campaign the Vatican to recognize the Jesuits as martyrs and saints. Fr Gerald P Fogarty, SJ, who teaches Catholic history at the University of Virginia, said Fr Baptista de Segura SJ headed an expedition from Florida in August 1570.

Accompanying Segura were Fr Luis de Quiros SJ; three Jesuit brothers, Gabriel Gomez, Sancho Zeballos, and Pedro Linares; and three novices, Gabriel de Solis, Juan Bautista Mendez, and Cristobal Redondo.

The group was guided by Don Luis de Velasco, a Virginia Indian who had been captured by Europeans 10 years earlier and was taught Spanish so he could serve as an interpreter.

The Jesuits arrived at Chesapeake Bay in September 1570, then continued about 40 miles up the James River to what is now College Creek. They then traveled by land to a settlement off the York River. De Velasco soon left the Jesuits' mission to live with the Indians, and in February 1571 led the killing of the missionaries, according to the accounts. The only person spared from the group was Alonso de Olmos, a boy whose father was a Spanish settler in Florida. The fact that the Indians didn't kill the only non-Jesuit in the group indicates the Jesuits were slain because of their religion, according to Catholic scholars. [Source: AP]