Calle Fray Juan Gil

Juan Gil, born in Arévalo around 1535, belonged to the Order of the Most Holy Trinity, devoted to ransoming Christian captives from the prisons of North Africa. As redeemer general he traveled Castile gathering alms and crossed the Mediterranean to negotiate, coin by coin, the freedom of slaves. His most famous rescue took place in Algiers, where Miguel de Cervantes had been held for five years, having tried to escape four times. His owner demanded 500 gold escudos; the writer’s family had raised only 300. Friar Juan Gil made up the sum by asking Christian merchants and drawing on the Order’s funds. The governor, deposed, was preparing to leave for Constantinople with his galleys loaded with slaves, and Cervantes was already chained in one of them. Friar Juan Gil handed over the gold on 19 September 1580, just as the fleet was about to weigh anchor.