PAUL OF BURGOS. - Dominican exegete, b. at Burgos ca. 1353, d. there 29 Aug. 1435. Son of a wealthy Jew, through diligent study of Holy Scripture and the Summa Theologica of St. Thomas he came to Christianity. At baptism he took the name Paul of St. Mary. After his wife’s death he embraced the ecclesiastical state and became tutor to John II, King of Castile, chancellor of the Kingdom of León and Castile, bishop of Cartagena (1405) and later of Burgos (1415). Before his conversion he had three sons, of whom Alfonso succeeded him in the see of Burgos and Gonzalo became bishop of Plasencia.
PAUL OF THE CROSS, St. - Portrait of St. P. of the Cross, painted from life by Domenico Porta (1733) - Rome, chapel of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Retreat of Sts. John and Paul.
Well versed in Jewish life and customs, he wrote Scripture commentaries with an apologetic aim. His works include: Additones (1429–31) to the postills of Nicholas of Lyra on the whole of Holy Scripture; a treatise against the Jews: Dialogus qui vocatur scrutinium Scripturarum libris duobus contra fidiam Judaeorum (Mantua 1475, Mainz 1478, Burgos 1591 with a brief biography); twelve questions De nomine Tetragrammaton (ed. with notes by I. Drusius, Groningen 1604, and in H. Reland, Decas exercitationum philologicarum, Utrecht 1707).