ÁLVAREZ DE PAZ, DIEGO. - One of the principal spiritual authors of the Society of Jesus. Born in Toledo in 1560, a Jesuit in 1578, he was attending the theology lectures of Fr. Gabriel Vázquez in Alcalá when he left in 1584 for Peru, where he completed his studies and received the priesthood (1586). A professor of philosophy, then of theology and of Sacred Scripture, he was subsequently rector of the colleges of Quito (1596-1600) and Cuzco (1601-1605), vice-provincial of Tucumán (1605-1607), prefect of studies and then rector in Lima (1609). At the end of 1616 or in the early days of 1617 he received the office of provincial of Peru, which he held until his death, which occurred at Potosí on 17 January 1620. A zealous superior, he promoted the extirpation of idolatrous superstitions among the converted Indians. Several times he asked the colonial authorities in vain to place Lima in a state of defense against English pirates.
A. owes his fame to the three folio volumes published at Lyon by the press of Orazio Cardon: De vita spirituali eiusque perfectione, 1618; De exterminatione mali et promotione boni, 1613; De inquisitione pacis seu studio orationis, 1617 (for the partial reprints, cf. Sommervogel and Uriarte-Lecina; for practical use, the reprint of Vivès, Opera omnia, Paris 1875-76, 6 vols. in 4to, serves the purpose). They form the organic parts of a great synthetic exposition of spiritual theology (contemporary with the Epercio de perfección of A. Rodríguez, the De virtute et statu religionis of F. Suárez and the De la perfección del cristiano en todos sus estados of P. De la Puente). The first volume treats of the nature and the degrees of the spiritual life and of evangelical perfection; the second of the practice of perfection, on the one hand through the destruction of sins and vices, and through the mortification of the passions (one of the finest passages), on the other through the acquisition of the virtues, especially of humility, and through the three vows of religion. The third volume is entirely concerned with prayer: vocal prayer (the divine office) and mental prayer; what precedes, accompanies, and follows prayer; the matter of prayer for beginners, the proficient and the perfect (here A. inserts a series of 249 meditations: noteworthy is the almost continuous use he makes of the form of meditation by colloquies); then, in the last two treatises, affective prayer and perfect contemplation. According to the plan set out by the author in the proem of the first volume, this third volume was also to treat «de procuranda animarum salute»; but the development given to the subject of prayer did not permit this, and A. promised to make it the object of a separate book, which he then had no time to write.
Written entirely in Latin (unlike the works of the great Spanish spiritual authors of the period), A.'s work is of a purely didactic character (with great use, and at times a slight abuse, of divisions), and, above all, theological; it unites great doctrinal precision with a wealth of biblical and patristic data. A. is the first theorist of affective prayer, distinguishing clearly between meditation and contemplation (t. III, ch. IV). He is the first Jesuit who treated at length of infused contemplation; besides his manifest personal experience, his sources here are solely medieval: St. Thomas, the Victorines, etc.; his sojourn in Peru did not allow him to know, or at least to make use of, the writings of St. Teresa and of the other contemporary mystics.
Bibliography7 works
Edmondo Lamalle