JUAN de ÁVILA, Blessed. — Born in Almodóvar del Campo (Spain) in 1499 or 1500; died in Montilla (province of Córdoba) on 10 May 1569. He was a spiritual master, a great preacher, and a promoter of Catholic restoration.
After studying at Salamanca and Alcalá, where he was a pupil of Domingo de Soto, he wished to go to the American missions. However, the Archbishop of Seville, Fernando de Contreras, kept him in his diocese. The preaching of the Blessed was denounced to the Inquisition, which in 1533 issued an acquittal. From Seville he moved to Córdoba and then to Granada, where in 1537 he collaborated with Archbishop Gaspar de Avalos in organizing the university. There the Blessed gathered most of his disciples, secular priests of austere life dedicated to popular missions, spiritual direction, and the education of youth in the various colleges he founded in Andalusia. The principal one was the University of Baeza, begun in 1538. This “priestly school” of the Blessed bore a great resemblance to the Society of Jesus, which he greatly favoured. Many saints enjoyed the friendship and spiritual direction of the Blessed, among them St John of God, St Francis Borgia, and St Teresa of Jesus. He was beatified by Leo XIII on 6 April 1894.
The Blessed’s masterpiece is the treatise *Audi Filia*, a jewel of Spanish mystical literature. Other writings include his correspondence, sermons on the Eucharist, the Holy Spirit, and the Madonna, exhortations to priests, and *pro-memoriae* on ecclesiastical reform for the Council of Trent.