Luis Zapata de Cárdenas was born in Llerena, Spain, in 1515.[2] His father, Rodrigo de Cárdenas, was Comendadorde Oliva in the Order of Santiago.[2]
Zapata served in the armies of Charles V in the Holy Roman Empire and Flanders.[2] He rose to the ranks of maestre de campo and became a member of the Order of Santiago.[2]
He left the military and became a friar in a Franciscan convent of San Ildefonso in Hornachos, which had recently been reconquered by Christian armies from Muslim rule.[2] He became Superior (guardián) over multiple monasteries in the same province.[2]
In 1560, the Franciscan Order named Zapata General Commissary for Peru.[2] He arrived in South America in 1561 with fifty friars. He returned to Spain in 1565, serving as Provincial in the Franciscan province of San Miguel (Extremadura) between 1566 and 1572.[2]
In 1569, Philip II named Zapata the first bishop of Cartagena de Indias, but Zapata declined the position.[2]