The jesuit missionary Gregorio Céspedes, was born in 1551 in Madrid and his father was the lawyer Fernando de Céspedes y Oviedo, the legal proofreader and judge of Madrid where he lived from 1551 to 1557. Before coming to Madrid he was the legal proofreader of Granada. His mother, Doña Maria de Simancas, originally came from Villanueva de Alcardete. Two nephews of Céspedes were initiated in the order of Santiago and in the files of the military order of Santiago kept in the National Historical Archives of Madrid, we can once
again confirm the lineage of the family of Céspedes .

Céspedes studied in Salamanca and one day, on the 28 of January of 1569, he suddenly entered into the order of Saint Ignacio de Loyola in Salamanca. Céspedes made his first vows in 1571 in Avila and soon began his theology studies at Santa Obediencia to go to Eastern India as was he was ordered. He arrived at Goa in India passing by Lisbon in 1574, and in India he became a priest in 1575 and he was transferred to Macao in 1576 to embark for Japan. In July of 1577 Céspedes, along with 14 jesuit companions, arrived at
Nakasaki, a city in the South of Japan. Since then Céspedes crossed with enthusiasm several parts of Japan undertaking his evangelical mission. From 1579 to 1587 for Céspedes
it was the period of culmination of his missionary work and cultural.

In Japan he knew many people of the noble class in the parts of Meaco, among them especially Konishi Yukinaga whose catholic name was Agustín. The Spanish Jesuit maintained close relations with Konishi Yukinaga, especially in Korea. After Hideyoshi, the next Japanese Shogun proclaimed the edict of the expulsion of the missionaries in Japan in 1587, Céspedes and his companions were forced to hide themselves in the parts of Kyushu under the protection of the Christian daimyos.

Hideyoshi initiated the military invasion against the Koreans in April of 1592 under the pretext to conquer China. Almost all the Christian daimyos of Kyushu under the order of
Konishi Yukinaga, disembarked on Korean territory at the forefront of the war. During the Japanese invasion, Gregorio de Céspedes could step on the Korean ground as the first European visitor at December 27, 1593. He spent approximately a year in Korea and mentions it occasionally in his letters. He disliked the country and was mainly active as a priest for Konishi Yukinawa and his soldiers.