RIBERA, FRANCISCO de. - Exegete, b. in Villacastín (Segovia) in 1537, d. in Salamanca in 1591. Already a priest and doctor in theology, he became a Jesuit in 1570; he was later a missionary and for 16 years professor of Sacred Scripture at Salamanca.

Having been a collegian and then a writer of the Colegio de Arzobispo in Salamanca, and even rector of the University, he thought of withdrawing from the world as a hermit, in order to be free for sacred study, in imitation of St. Jerome, of whom he was a great admirer. Having entered the Order, he gave examples of exquisite humility, obedience, and zeal for souls. During his teaching of Sacred Scripture he sought the solution of the cruces not only in his vast erudition (especially patristic), in the sagacity of his hermeneutical principles (he is almost the only one who at that time defended the single literal sense), but also in prayer, accompanied by fasts and penances. His harsh adversary, Fray Luis de León, stigmatized in him the little esteem in which he perhaps held the Jewish exegesis of the Middle Ages. An admirer of his exegesis was St. Teresa (v.) of Avila, who had a special vision on this subject and made him her confessor. R. received her with veneration, called her "his mother" and became her first biographer. However, the general Acquaviva (v.) did not consent to the publication of this biography, except after a long correspondence, since the Society of Jesus was at that time passing through a difficult moment in Spain.

Works: In librum XII prophetarum commentarii sensum... historicum moralem et persaepe etiam allegoricum complectentes (Salamanca 1587 etc.); In librum XII proph. commentarii selecti historici (ibid. 1598); La vida de la madre Teresa de Jesús (ibid. 1590 etc.; many versions); In ... Apoc. commentarii cum 5 indicibus, together with De templo et de iis quae ad templum pertinent ll. 5 (ibid. 1591; the De Templo alone: Lyon 1592); In Ep. ad Hebraeus commentarii (Salamanca 1598); In Ev. sec. Johannem commentarii (Lyon 1623). He also left manuscript commentaries, in the University Library of Salamanca, on Is., Ps., Apoc., the Epistles of St. Paul, and the 12 prophets.

Bibliography13 works

BIBL.: Sommervogel, VI, coll. 1761-67; Hutter, III (1907), coll. 238-40; M. Tanner, Soc. Ictu Apostolorum imitatrix, Prague 1694, pp. 348-51; Luis de la Puente, Vida del ven. p. Baltasar de la Cruz, Madrid 1880, pp. 332-36; A. Astrain, Hist. de la Comp de Jesús en la Asistencia de España, IV, Madrid 1913, pp. 48-50; anon., s. v. in Enc. Eur. Am., LI (1929), p. 330 f. (the "personal file" that his superiors made on him); L. Lopetegui, Centura de la Orden de la Vida de Teresa de Jesús por el p. Fr. de R., in Manreta, 16 (1944), pp. 161-74; P. Luis Suárez, El comentario de Fr. de R. a la Epistola a los Hebreos, in Ilustración del clero, 37 (1944), pp. 90-100; J. Leal, in Archivo wol. granadino, 9 (1946), pp. 29-32 (commentary on the appearance of Christ to M. Magdalene); F. López López, ibid., 10 (1947), pp. 395-410 (defender of the single literal sense). On various literary "relics" of R., Boletín de la R. Academia de la historia, 66 (1915), p. 401 ff.; 67 (1915), pp. 334 ff., 394 f., 412; 68 (1916), p. 491 ff.; 74 (1919), p. 140 f.

Pietro Nober

@incollection{ec10_ribera_francisco_de, author = {Nober, Pietro}, title = {Ribera, francisco de}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {X}, pages = {847--848}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/ribera-francisco-de} }

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Ribera, Francisco de

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