Crespí de Valdaura y Borja, Lluís

CRESPÍ DE VALDAURA Y BORJA, Lluís. - Spanish theologian and bishop, b. at Valencia on 2 May 1607, d. there on 19 April 1663. A priest in 1631, he taught theology at Valencia for 22 years. He translated Bochi's Life of St. Philip (Valencia 1651). In 1633 he went to Rome, where he made contact with the fathers of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, and on his return to his homeland he gave rise to the first Oratorian Congregation in Spain, associating with himself some companion priests. In 1648 he was elected bishop of Orihuela and in 1658 transferred to Plasencia; he was most pious and promoted many works of charity.

He was ambassador of King Philip IV to advocate the cause of the Immaculate Conception before Alexander VII, to whom he delivered his Propugnaculum theologicum definibilitatis proximae sententiae piae negantis B. V. M. in suae conceptionis primo istanti originali labe fuisse infectam (Valencia 1653); the Pope was induced by C. to issue the constitution « Sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum ». C. also published a severe condemnation of the theater (ibid. 1649), and Quaestiones selectae morales, in quibus novae aliquae doctrinae Ioan. Caramnelis episc. missiensis refutantur (Lyons 1658).