CHAVES, PEDRO de. - Benedictine abbot. His origin is unknown—whether French or Portuguese. In 1534 he entered the abbey of Montserrat, where he was initially received as a lay brother, but his exceptional abilities soon led to his advancement to the rank of choir monk and priest.
As an ascetical writer, he is known for his mystical work *Conversión de la Magdalena* (Barcelona 1549), of which an Italian translation was published a few years later (Naples 1561). He is better known, however, for his activity as a reformer of monasticism in Portugal, whither he went in 1558 at the request of the abbot of S. Tirso de Riba d’Ave, accompanied by two other monks from Montserrat, Placido de Villabodos and Giovanni Chanon. With their assistance, he was able to introduce the reform of the Spanish Congregation of St. Benedict of Valladolid into several monasteries and thus establish the Portuguese Benedictine Congregation, of which he himself became the first abbot general. The new Congregation was approved by Pope Pius V in 1566.