ARIAS DE ARMENTA, ALVARO. – Jesuit ascetical writer, b. in Seville in 1577, d. in Rome on 29 January 1643. He entered the Society in 1593 and was rector of the novitiates of Montiglia and Seville and of various colleges, provincial, and finally assistant general for Spain. Among his treatises, the Encomia sanctissimae Eucharistiae et beatissimae Virginis Mariae (Seville 1615) is particularly noteworthy. The Contrato espiritual del hom-
bre con Dios (Baeza 1639), in dialogical form, with the bridegroom and bride as interlocutors, sets forth the perfection of charity. Famous in his religious province were the Meditations ad s. Ignatii exercitia... in usum tironum, unpublished.
BIBL.: Sommervogel, I, coll. 549-51; Hurter, III, col. 217; A. Astrain, Historia della Compañía de Jesús en la Asistencia de España, I, Madrid 1916, pp. 52 and 100. Felicissimo Tinivella