
Antonio Redondo
Photo courtesy of Loron T. Wade.
Redondo, Antonio (1874–1945)
By Loron T. Wade
During a career that spanned 40 years in 11 countries Loron T. Wade was an educator, pastor, teacher of pastors, evangelist, and theologian. Now retired, he dedicates a major portion of his time to editorial and writing work.
First Published: December 19, 2024
Antonio Redondo was named the first Adventist convert in continental Colombia and the first licensed Adventist minister in Colombia.
Arrival to Colombia
Antonio Andrés Redondo Bonilla (born July 17, 1874) arrived in Colombia in 1910 with a companion named William Cocking. They were colporteurs sent by the United Bible Society from its headquarters in Panama to spread the Bible in Cartagena.1 Redondo, a Catholic priest, converted to Protestantism in Valencia, Spain. He emigrated to the New World2 where he married and, for several years, he traveled, selling Bibles in Central America.
In fulfillment of their initial assignment, Redondo and Cocking began offering Bibles, but they found many people eager to hear the gospel and, before long they were meeting with a group of inquirers on a regular basis. On February 23, 1912, Pastor Walter Lee, leader of the Presbyterian Mission in Barranquilla, came to organize a church with 32 new believers. By common consent, Antonio Redondo was named their pastor. The following year, the Mission sent a missionary from the United States to take over the church in Cartagena and they asked Redondo to work elsewhere. In response, he moved his family 250 miles (c. 400 kilometers) south to Cereté. He began working in that city and in other towns along the Sinú River as successfully as he had in Barranquilla. Before long, he had organized a church with 200 people in attendance each Sunday, and a church school under the leadership of his daughter Carmen.
Conversion to the Adventist Faith
During the time he served as president of the West Caribbean Conference with headquarters in Panama (January 1920 to March 1923), Max Trummer had a constant burden for Colombia which, along with Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama, was part of his territory. Colombia had 85 percent of the total population of the conference, but there were only six Adventists and none of them were Colombians.3
The date is uncertain, but it must have been in 1920 that Trummer filled a wooden box with Adventist magazines, books, and tracts. He gave the box to the captain of a ship that was leaving Colón for Colombia and then prayed fervently that the Lord would guide the precious cargo to its destination. The captain left the box at the customs house in Cartagena. After a time, seeing that no one came to claim it and that the box bore no name or address, the officials decided to open it. When they discovered that it was filled with Protestant literature, they sent for Antonio Redondo who was the Protestant best known them, and gave him the box.4
Redondo examined the contents of the box with growing interest. He soon became convinced of the need to keep the Sabbath. He marveled at prophecies about the second coming of Jesus, and he began to share the message and the literature. Redondo found the address of Pacific Press in the Panama Canal Zone in the literature from the box, so he wrote, explaining that he and his family were keeping the Sabbath and that many people wanted to know about the message. In response, the Pacific Press sent him 100 copies of El Centinela magazine. Redondo distributed these and asked for 200 copies of the next issue. Within a few months, he was receiving 500 copies regularly. He also requested books to sell. In this way, he became an Adventist colporteur before becoming an Adventist church member.5
Trummer heard the news with great joy, and the two of them began corresponding. Finally, in January 1922, Trummer was able to travel to Cereté and stay with the Redondo family for ten days of intensive Bible study. They rested together on the second Sabbath of Trummer’s visit. On Sunday morning, they went down to the river. There, in the company of a few witnesses, Trummer baptized Redondo, his wife, Ana Maria, and their daughter, Carmen. Trummer reported the event to the Division office, identifying Redondo as “our very first convert.”6 Tirso Escandón wrote: “The baptism of Redondo was a great victory for the Adventist church that was just beginning because he entered at once into the service of the organization and became a courageous and self-sacrificing worker.”7
Immediately after his baptism, Trummer invited Redondo to accompany him on a colporteur journey. Redondo had years of experience in this type of work. In Barranquilla, they worked with colporteurs John Cleaves and John Holder with great success. Then they divided into groups of two and worked in different parts of the country. A few months later, they met in Bogotá and worked there for some time.
In October 1923, Trummer, now president of the newly organized Colombia Mission, asked Redondo to move to Barranquilla and start the work there. Initially, this would be self-supporting labor: Redondo was to sell books to support his family, because the Mission had no budget for his salary. Later, he was employed with a salary of $20 a week.8 Redondo is listed as either a missionary licentiate or a licentiate (licensed minister) in the Adventist Yearbook between 1923 and 1933.9
In Barranquilla
As the only Adventists in Barranquilla and having no place to celebrate communal worship services to God, Redondo decided to attend the meetings of his former denomination, the Presbyterian Church. Shortly before this, José Manuel Martínez, a young man, was invited by a stranger to attend a Sunday-night Bible preaching campaign at the Presbyterian Church. As he eagerly read the Bible for the first time, Martínez came to Exodus 20. He was troubled by the discrepancy between the Ten Commandments, which mandate rest on the seventh day, and the church’s observance of Sunday. Three weeks after his first visit to the church, he met Antonio Redondo who introduced him to Bible teachings about the Sabbath. Martínez invited others to the Bible meetings in Redondo’s home. Trummer visited Redondo and the Bible study group in his home in Barranquilla, and later he shared a report on the progress being made in the city:
We are very thankful for the rich blessings God has given us on this trip. The first Sabbath, we had the joy of organizing our second church in this field here in Barranquilla. I ordained Brother Redondo as the local elder of this church of twelve, which is the fruit of his labor.10
When Martínez lost his job for refusing to work on the Sabbath. Redondo mentored him in colporteur work, and he went on to dedicate 53 years to spreading the Adventist message as a colporteur and later as an ordained minister. The church in Barranquilla continued to grow under Redondo’s leadership and with the enthusiastic support of Martinez and other members. When in 1926 Erwin Thurber assumed leadership of the newly organized Atlantic Colombia Mission and the local church, Redondo returned to his home in Cereté.
In Cereté
Antonio Redondo had left his ministerial appointment in Barranquilla, but in Cereté, he continued working as he had before. Soon, Trummer reported in Interamerican Division Messenger:
The very first convert, Brother Antonio Redondo, that the Lord gave us has been very faithful. He … has been working on the Sinu river where, by means of the medical and evangelical work, many have become deeply interested in our work, and several well-to-do families have promised substantial support to the cause. … He constantly sacrifices for the cause of God and does all in his power to win souls. His daughter Carmen is conducting a successful day school in connection with the work of her father.11
In April of 1927, Redondo visited Carrillo, a village on the banks of the Sinú river, where a colporteur had spread the Adventist message. He traveled there by canoe returning home on Sunday morning after paddling upstream all night. He wrote to Pastor Thurber that the weekend brought many blessings, especially the meeting on Saturday night when nearly the whole village gathered in the patio of “brother Felipe.” He preached from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. because the people did not want him to leave and were moved by his message.12
In June of 1927, Thurber went with Redondo on an extensive journey on the river stopping at many places along the way. This time they traveled in a motorboat that belonged to the Mission. Thurber marveled to see people come to greet Redondo with warm smiles and friendly hugs. “He has friends and people who love him every place we stop,” he reported.13
The Call to Bucaramanga
On March 27, 1929, the Colombia Venezuela Union board of directors voted to relocate Redondo to Bucaramanga to help Pastor Trummer begin work in that city. Redondo was troubled by this call. He had strong connections in Cereté and with the communities along the river where he was sharing the Adventist message, and there was no one else to continue his work if he left. On February 18, 1930, the union board of directors met in Barranquilla to discuss Redondo’s future. The board decided to advise Redondo to seek remunerative employment. They also voted to reduce his pay from $20 per week to $10 per week, starting June 1 and continuing until December 31, 1930. In view of this new reality, Redondo decided to start a river transportation business, an idea inspired by his time on the river. In March 1930, the Atlantic Mission provided him with a boat and funds to repair its motor, and Redondo continued his missionary work as a volunteer.14
The business venture was successful, and Redondo soon expanded his fleet, eventually purchasing buses and trucks as better roads were built. Unfortunately, he became gradually less involved with the church as he focused on business.15 His wife lost faith, and his daughters married outside the church. By 1945, Redondo’s health was deteriorating due to kidney disease. During a visit from his friend Manuel Martínez, he wept as he expressed deep regret for having left the Adventist message. He passed away on August 7, 1945 and was burried in Cereté.16
Sources
“Caribbean Union Mission: Doing Something Worthwhile.” Inter-American Messenger, May 1924.
Gómez Marimón, Sabel. Historia del protestantismo en Cartagena, 1930-1946. Facultad de Ciencias Humanas, Programa de Historia, de la Universidad de Cartagena, 2011.
Martínez, José Manuel. Memoirs. Undated and unpublished given to author by Martínez in 1980. In author’s private collection.
Naranjo Ramos, María Emilia. El norteamericano Horace C. Coleman y la iglesia evangélica en el Caribe Colombiano (2015). Accessed at https://lacomarcadelsol.wordpress.com/la-comarca-del-sol/.
Restrepo Jaramillo, Eugenio. El Protestantismo en Colombia. Medellín: Joseph J. Ramírez, 1944.
Seventh-day Adventist Yearbooks, 1923–1927. https://www.adventistyearbook.org/.
Thurber, E. W. “A Monthly Outstation Visit in Colombia.” ARH, March 31, 1927.
Trummer, E. M. “Progress in Colombia.” Inter-American Messenger, August 1926.
Notes
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Information about Redondo’s experience before 1920 is from Sabel Gómez Marimón, Historia del protestantismo en Cartagena, 1930-1946 (Facultad de Ciencias Humanas, Programa de Historia, de la Universidad de Cartagena, 2011); María Emilia Naranjo Ramos, El norteamericano Horace C. Coleman y la iglesia evangélica en el Caribe Colombiano (2015), accessed at https://lacomarcadelsol.wordpress.com/la-comarca-del-sol/; Eugenio Restrepo Jaramillo, El Protestantismo en Colombia (Medellín: Joseph J. Ramírez, 1944); the undated and unpublished memoir of José Manuel Martínez (given to autor by Martínez in 1980).↩
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José Manuel Martínez, who was Redondo’s close friend, states in his memoir, that Redondo left Spain because his life was in danger after his conversion.↩
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“West Caribbean Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (1920), 301.↩
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The undated and unpublished memoir of José Manuel Martínez (given to autor by Martínez in 1980).↩
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Ibid.↩
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Redondo was the first Adventist convert in continental Colombia. However, the first Adventists in the Colombian island of Saint Andrew were baptized in 1900 (Daniel Duffis, A Blessed Heritage [published by the author, 2000], 21). This means the Colombian islands had Adventist members at least 22 years earlier, though at the time, they were part of the Nicaragua Mission. There were also some Adventists in Panamá around 1900, when it was still a province of Colombia. But by 1922, Panamá had already become a separate nation, which is why Trummer considered Redondo to be “our very first convert that the Lord gave us” (E. M. Trummer, “Progress in Colombia,” Inter-American Messenger, August 1926, 5-6).↩
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Translated from Tirso Escandón, Autobiografía (Angwin, CA: Privately published by Rafael Escandón, [n.d.]), 21 (a copy in author’s private collection).↩
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Information in the Minutes of the Colombia Venezuela Union committee, February 18, 1930. At that time, one Colombian peso was equal to one U.S. dollar.↩
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“Colombian Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (SDA Yearbook) (1923), 176; “Colombian Mission,” SDA Yearbook (1924), 183; “Colombia Mission,” SDA Yearbook (1925), 197-198; “Atlantic Colombia Mission,” SDA Yearbook (1926), 216; “Atlantic Colombia Mission,” SDA Yearbook (1927), 228; “Atlantic Colombia Mission,” SDA Yearbook (1928), 245-246; “Atlantic Colombia Mission,” SDA Yearbook (1929), 256; “Antioquia Mission,” SDA Yearbook (1930), 197; “Atlantic Colombia Mission,” SDA Yearbook (1931), 205; “Atlantic Colombia Mission,” SDA Yearbook (1932), 182; “Atlantic Colombia Mission,” SDA Yearbook (1933), 137.↩
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Trummer’s report in “Caribbean Union Mission: Doing Something Worthwhile,” Inter-American Messenger, May 1924, 5.↩
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E. M. Trummer, “Progress in Colombia,” Inter-American Messenger, August 1926, 5-6.↩
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E. W. Thurber, “A Monthly Outstation Visit in Colombia,” ARH, March 31, 1927, 15-16.↩
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Ibid.↩
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The undated and unpublished memoir of José Manuel Martínez (given to author by Martínez in 1980).↩
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The last time he is listed as an Adventist worker in the yearbook was in 1933 (“Atlantic Colombia Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook [1933], 137).↩
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Please see the image of Antonio Redondo’s grave (courtesy of Enoc Iglesias Ortega) in the photo gallery.↩