ALONSO CHINCHILLA. — Benedictine theologian and ascetical writer, born in Valladolid in 1574; there he entered the monastery of St. Benedict in 1591; from there he moved to St. Martin’s in Madrid; died in Valladolid in 1631.
A man of sincere piety and great learning, as a theologian he is known for the prominent role he played, together with his better-known confrere Marzilla, in defending frequent Communion, for which he composed several booklets still useful today. The most important of these, *Memorial de algunos efectos que el Sacramento de la Eucaristia causa en el alma* (1611), is perhaps a new edition of that published in 1608: *Consideración de la Comunión*. Of this and his other writings, which were reprinted many times, the editions were soon exhausted and already unobtainable by the 17th century.