LOUIS OF GRANADA (LUIS DE GRANADA). - Spanish Dominican preacher, writer and theologian, b. at Granada in 1504, d. at Lisbon on 31 Dec. 1588.

From Granada he was sent in 1534 to Cordova to restore the local convent of Escalaceli, of which he was prior. In the ten years 1545-55 he was also prior at Palma del Rio and at Badajoz. In Apr. 1556 he was elected provincial of Portugal, where he spent the rest of his life, almost always at Lisbon. He was confessor and counsellor of the regent Catherine, widow of John III, and of the infante don Henry, cardinal-archbishop of Evora and king of Portugal (1578-80). An intimate friend of the b. John of Avila, he later wrote the first biography of him.

While still provincial he had been proposed by Queen Catherine for the archbishopric of Braga, which he instead had accepted by the ven. Bartholomew (v.) de Martyribus. The last decade of his life was saddened by the deaths of the Regent (1578) and of King don Henry (1580), and by the intrigues that brought Philip II, king of Spain, to the throne of Portugal (1580), and finally by the malicious deception of a false stigmatist, formerly his penitent.

L. di G. left a vast literary output, especially ascetical and homiletic, which had many translations into foreign languages and numerous editions, including complete ones (cf. M. Llanenza [v. bibl.]). He is rightly considered the prince of Spanish sacred orators, who gave the Castilian language sonority and magnificence, and one of the first writers of ascetics to have formulated a method of prayer for the laity, to lead them to the so useful practice of meditation. He also wrote in Latin and in Portuguese. Mentioned are: Libro de la oración y meditación... (Salamanca 1554); Guía de pecadores... (Lisbon 1555-1556); Introducción al símbolo de la fe (Salamanca 1583, a powerful apologetic work); the collections of sermons Concionum de tempore (4 vols., Lisbon 1575-76); Concionum de praecipuis sanctorum festis (2 vols., ibid. 1576); Collectanea moralis philosophiae (3 vols., ibid. 1571), and others.

Bibliography7 works

BIBL.: L. Muñoz, Vida y virtudes del ven. varón el p. m. fr. L. de G., Madrid 1639; Quétif-Echard, II, pp. 2859-91b; J. Cuervo, Biografía de fr. L. de Gr., Madrid 1896; P. Quirós, Verdadero retrato de fr. L. de Gr., in La ciencia tomista, 13-14 (1916), pp. 298-307 (with 4 plates); P. Pourras, La spiritualité chrétienne, III, Paris 1925, pp. 143-53; M. Llanenza, Bibliografia del ven. p. m. fr. L. de G., 4 vols., Salamanca 1926-28 (a monumental work); G. De Arriaga, Historia del Colegio de S. Gregorio de Valladolid, ed. E. Hoyos, II, Valladolid 1930, pp. 29-64.

Abele Redigonda

@incollection{ec7_ludovico_di_granata_luis_de_gr, author = {Redigonda, Abele}, title = {Ludovico di Granata (Luís de Granada)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VII}, pages = {1640}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/ludovico-di-granata-luis-de-granada} }

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Louis of Granada (Luis de Granada)

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