LEANDRO di SAN MARTINO (JONES JOHN). — Benedictine theologian, born in London to a Protestant family in 1575; died there on 27 December 1636. He attended the schools of Westminster and Oxford, where, although a Protestant, he defended theses that led to suspicions that he was a Catholic, and he was consequently expelled. He then went to Spain (1596), where, after converting, he entered the Benedictine Order (1599).
He taught theology, Sacred Scripture, and Hebrew for 22 years at the College of Douai. Prior of the monastery (1612), he was elected president of the English Benedictine Congregation in 1622. His biblical publications were highly esteemed. In collaboration with Giovanni Gallemart, he published: Biblia iuxta editiones ante editionem Clementinum cum glossa ordinaria (6 vols., Douai 1617; Antwerp 1634, better edition). At the end of each volume are Luca di Bruges’s corrections. Critically prepared and furnished with extremely copious indexes, the work proved practically useful for preaching as well as for scholars: Historia et harmonia Conciliorum (Frankfurt 1618). He edited various theological and apologetic works by earlier authors, the principal one being: S. Cumirano O. Min., Conciliatio locorum specie tenus pugnantium totius Sacrae Scripturae (there 1623).