CASANOVAS, IGNASI. - Jesuit, b. at Santpedor (Catalonia) on 13 Aug. 1872, he entered the novitiate of Veruela in 1888. After his years of formation (1888-1905), he spent his whole life in Barcelona in the apostolate of the educated classes.
He began by giving series of apologetic and social lectures, later collected in the volumes La religión natural (Barcelona 1907); Teoria de la revelació (ibid. 1908); Nuestro estado social (ibid. 1910); Acción de la mujer en la acción social (ibid. 1911 and 1914). He also wrote at that time on Catalan linguistics and on aesthetics, and he paved the way for his future works on James Balmes, his great inspirer and model (L'apologetica de Balmes, ibid. 1910; Reliquias literarias de Balmes, ibid. 1910). He also translated from Catalan into Spanish the Cartas pastorales of the distinguished bishop of Vich, José Torres y Bages (3 vols., Barcelona 1913). From these years onward, Fr. C. took a decisive part in the development of the "Foment di pietat catalana," recently founded by the priest Eudaldo Serra and which in 1916 became an autonomous religious publishing house. In 1923 he completed it by opening the "Biblioteca Balmes" to promote ecclesiastical studies and prepare the way for a Catholic institute; to this library, in 1925, he gave as its organ the periodical Analecta sacra Tarraconensia, alongside series of more extensive studies (Biblioteca historica de la Biblioteca Balmes, etc.) which he fed largely with his own works.
From about 1916 Fr. C.'s literary output took on a predominantly historical and ascetic character. His hagiographical works are above all penetrating psychological essays: St. Alonso Rodríguez (anonymous, Barcelona 1917; Italian trans. by Fr. St. Orzechowski: La vita e lo spirito di s. Alfonso Rodríguez, Rome 1918); St. Ignatius of Loyola (Barcelona 1922; in Spanish, Madrid 1930); La madre Pilar Barras, carmelita de la Caridad (Vich 1920); L'anima de s. Teresa de Jesús Infant (Barcelona 1929). The fruit of long years of preparation are the edition of the Obras completas del dr. D. Jaime Balmes (Barcelona, biblioteca historica de la biblioteca Balmes, 33 vols. 1925-27), and the powerful monograph: Balmes, la seva vida, el seu temps, les seves obres (3 vols., ibid. 1932). Research on Catalan culture of the 18th century, the prehistory of Balmesian thought, led to a Josep Finestres: estudis biografics (Barcelona 1932, plus two vols. of Epistolari, 1933-34); other monographs on the subject were cut short by events. To the "Foment di pietat catalana" Fr. C. gave a Biblioteca de Exercicis espiritualis (11 vols., Barcelona 1930-36) which contains one of the best and most extensive modern commentaries on the book of St. Ignatius. Hidden in Barcelona at the beginning of the Marxist revolution, he was arrested and murdered by the anarchists in Sept. 1936, crowning with martyrdom a life of rare fecundity. His foundations have survived (taking the name "Balmesiana") and continue to exercise great influence on the ecclesiastical culture of this part of Spain. "Balmesiana" began in 1942 a collected edition, entirely in Spanish and in 18 vols., of Fr. C.'s principal works.
Bibliography
Edmondo Lamalle