IBÁÑEZ, PEDRO. - Spanish Dominican theologian, b. at Calahorra perhaps at the beginning of the sixteenth century, d. in the convent of St. Mary of Trianos, of which he was prior, on 2 February 1565.
A pupil of the convent of St. Stephen of Salamanca, where he made his profession on 5 April 1540, he taught theology at St. Paul of Valladolid and at St. Thomas of Ávila. Here he met St. Teresa of Jesus, to whom he owes his fame in a particular way, because he was her beloved confessor and director, the one who most influenced her spiritual formation, in the period when she was anxiously thinking about the reform of Carmel and met with the strongest and most unforeseen opposition on every side. Ibáñez not only approved her bold and contested design, but also assisted the Saint and sustained her with his counsels, supporting her both in Spain and in Rome, until he obtained the pontifical Brief for the foundation of the first convent of the Discalced Carmelite nuns at St. Joseph of Ávila. He also assisted the Saint in drafting the internal regulations of that house; and in 1632 he ordered her to write a first autobiography, which was afterwards lost, and the history of the foundations. Ibáñez left the Tratado del discernimiento de los espíritus on the extraordinary life of his penitent, in which he gives proof of a great and profound experience in mystical matters. St. Teresa held him in great esteem as a scholar and a saint, and in her autobiography she writes that she saw his soul rise immediately to heaven.
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