MACH, JOSÉ. - Spanish Jesuit, missionary and writer who had notable influence on the ecclesiastical culture of his time, b. in Barcelona on 3 May 1810, d. in Saragossa on 25 July 1885. He entered the Order on 3 March 1825, and devoted himself to various social categories, becoming a counselor of vast experience, esteemed and sought after.
He left about 20 publications of an ascetic, pastoral and devotional nature. Several of them were translated into French, Italian, Portuguese and Polish, and were reprinted in very many editions; thus the Ancora de salvación, o devocionario enriquecido con muchas y nuevas oraciones, meditaciones y prácticas de virtud (Barcelona 1854), which by 1861 was in its 7th edition and by the death of M. had reached the 55th. The Tesoro del sacerdote o repertorio de los principales cosas que ha de saber y practicar el sacerdote para santificarse a sí, y santificar a los demás (ibid. 1861) also had wide circulation. In the 10th edition of this work (ibid. 1889), there is the biography of M. Among the devotions most inculcated by him are to be numbered those to St. Aloysius Gonzaga, to St. Joseph, visits to the Most Blessed Sacrament, the meditation of the Passion of Christ. M. also edited an edition of the Imitation of Christ.
Bibliography
Arnaldo Lanz