ÁLVARO ARIAS DE ARMENTA. - Ascetic writer and Jesuit, born in Seville in 1577, died in Rome on 29 January 1643. He entered the Society in 1593 and was rector of the novitiates of Montilla and Seville and of various colleges, provincial, and finally general assistant for Spain. Among his treatises, the most notable is *Encomia sanctissima Eucharistiae et beatissimae Virginis Mariae* (Seville 1615). *El Contrato espiritual del hombre con Dios* (Baeza 1639), in dialogic form with the bridegroom and bride as interlocutors, expounds the perfection of charity. Famous in his religious province were the *Meditationes ad s. Ignatii exercitia... in usum tironum*, unpublished.
BIBL.: Sommervogel, 1, cols. 549-551; Hurter, III, col. 217; A. Astrain, *Historia de la Compañía de Jesús en la Asistencia de España*, I, Madrid 1916, pp. 52 and 100. Felicissimo Tinivella