RIBERA, FRANCISCO DE. – Exegete, born in Villacastin (Segovia) in 1537, died in Salamanca in 1591. Already a priest and doctor of theology, he entered the Society of Jesus in 1570; he was then a missionary and for sixteen years professor of Sacred Scripture at Salamanca.
Having been associated with the writers of the Colegio de Arzobispo in Salamanca, and even rector of the University, he thought of retiring as a hermit from the world in order to be free for sacred study, in imitation of St Jerome, of whom he was a great admirer. Once in the Order, he gave examples of exquisite humility, obedience, and zeal for souls. During his teaching of Sacred Scripture, he sought solutions to textual difficulties not only in his vast erudition (especially patristic), in the sagacity of his hermeneutical principles (he was almost the only one at the time to defend the single literal sense), but also in prayer, accompanied by fasting and penances. His harsh opponent, Fray Luis de León, stigmatised in him the little esteem he perhaps held for medieval Jewish exegesis. St Teresa (q.v.) of Avila was an admirer of his exegesis; she had a special vision on this subject and made him her confessor. Ribera received her with veneration, called her “his mother,” and became her first biographer. However, the Superior General Acquaviva (q.v.) did not consent to the publication of this biography until after lengthy correspondence, since the Society of Jesus was then going through a difficult period in Spain.
Works: In librum XII prophetarum commentarii sensum... historicorum 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 translations; In... Apoc. commentarii cum 5 indicibus, together with De templo et de iis quae ad templum pertinent ill. 5 (ibid. 1591; De Templo alone; Lyons 1592); In Ep. ad Hebraeos commentarii (Salamanca 1598); In Ev. sec. Iohannem commentarii (Lyons 1623). He also left manuscript commentaries, in the University Library of Salamanca, on Isaiah, Psalms, Apocalypse, the Epistles of St Paul, and the twelve prophets.