ASTETE, GASPAR. - Distinguished Spanish catechist, b. in Salamanca ca. 1537, Jesuit in 1555; he was novice master, rector of the Colleges of Burgos and Villimar; d. at Burgos in 1601.
He left works of great importance: *Institución y guía de la juventud cristiana* (2 vols., Burgos 1572-94), continued with a *Tratado del govierno de la familia* (2 vols., ibid. 1597-98). But his name remains chiefly linked to the *Catechismo de la doctrina cristiana*, one of the two most widespread catechisms in Spain down to our own day (Astete in the north and Ripalda in the south). Editions and reprints number in the hundreds in Spain (many also in Basque) and in Spanish America; translations were also made into indigenous languages for missionary use.
BIBL.: J. E. Uriarte and M. Lecina, *Biblioteca de Escritores de la Comp. de Jesús... de España*, I, Madrid 1925, pp. 337-50. Edmondo Lamalle