BARRÓN, VICENTE. - Spanish Dominican, confessor of St. Teresa, b. c. 1505. He studied at the theological college of the Dominicans in Salamanca. About 1534 he was in Ávila, where he first became confessor to the young Teresa de Ahumada and to her father. About 1544 he was professor of theology in Ávila and again confessor to St. Teresa of Jesus, who says of him (Life, ch. VII) that he was «a man of great virtue and very God-fearing», and that he was «of great benefit» to her, because «he took my soul’s welfare to heart and immediately made me aware of the perilous state in which I found myself». He taught theology at the Universities of Salamanca (1548), Valladolid (1551-54), and Alcalá (1554-57). Having attained (1565) the degree of master of theology, he taught theology at the University of Toledo and at the same time was a consultant to the Inquisition. St. Teresa, wishing to found one of her monasteries in Toledo, took him again as her spiritual director and adviser, and he, with his great influence, smoothed away every difficulty. The date of his death is unknown.
One unpublished work of his survives, Commentaries on the 12th-23rd Questions of the Summa of St. Thomas (Vatican Library, Ottob. cod. 1041).