Like many men of their time, Arias de Avila was hard and cruel. One particular event may have solidified Pedrarias hardy charater. A few years before 1513 he collapsed of some unrecored illness. As he was about to be lowered to his grave, a tearful servant who was embracing the casket was astonished to hear movement inside. Incredibly, Arias was breathing and very much alive. Thereafter he ordered an annual Requiem Mass sung for him in the cathedral at Torrejón, and stood in his own unused grave to listen to it. He took his coffin everywhere he went...even to the New World.