ANTONIO della MADRE DI DIO. - 1. Spanish exegete, Discalced Carmelite, b. at Valladolid, d. in 1679. He was general visitor of the West Indies and taught at Salamanca in the college of his Order.
He published a “thoroughly learned” (Hurter) general introduction to Holy Scripture: Praeludia iagogica ad SS. Bibliorum intelligentiam (in fol., Lyons 1669; Mainz 1670), in which he deals with inspiration, the canon, the original languages and versions, and the individual proto- and deuterocanonical books; of interest for its time is the appendix De notitia et usu eruditionis profanae, ubi stabilitur ex Scriptura et Patribus talem notitiam et usum licitum esse ac decentem. A clear and profound work, it explains acutely, among other things, the divine influence of inspiration (Praeludium, I, dist. IV), the concept of canonicity (ibid., d. VIII), and the biblical senses (Prael., III, d. I).
2. Distinct from the foregoing (confused with him by B. Heurtebize in DB, I, cols. 708-709) is his namesake of the Order of St. Paul the First Hermit, from Lisbon, who at the end
of the 17th century published the distinguished and very extensive literal and spiritual commentary on Proverbs, chs. 10-14 (and on many related passages collected from throughout the Bible): Apis Libani circumvoltans flores in horto Salomonis, I, (Prov. 10), Lyons 1686; II (Prov. 11-12), ibid. 1695; III (Prov. 13-14), ibid. 1698.