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The pious legacy of Juan Clemente de Fuentes, a merchant who died in 1640, having deposited both his soul and his goods with the Jesuits of Lima, clearly reveals the donor’s missionary motivations. He insisted that the 50,000 pesos he bequeathed to the Society of Jesus be used exclusively for evangelization, a demand that generated a conflict among the Jesuits. The merchant’s gesture invites us to consider both the Andean context and the political and religious culture shared by the inhabitants of the Indies with the European subjects of the Catholic Monarchy. This dossier provides a case study in the financing of religion by the laity and their investment in religious institutions. It contributes to understand the missionary phenomenon from a secular perspective and reflects the diversity of the actors involved in the construction of a Christian space in the Ibero-American colonial context.