RODRIGUEZ, ALONSO. – Jesuit, writer on ascetical theology, b. at Valladolid about 15 April 1538, d. at Seville on 21 February 1616.
He entered the Order in 1557 and taught moral theology for several years at the College of Monterrey, where he also served as rector; he then spent 30 years as master of novices and rector of the novitiate at Montilla.
The work that made his fame so widespread, even down to our own day, is Ejercicio de perfección y virtudes cristianas (3 vols., Seville 1609), republished innumerable times and translated into many languages (the first Italian version dates from 1617; adapted to the CIC in 1910), and more recently also brought into conformity with the CIC. The dissemination of the work is comparable only to that of the Imitazione di Cristo, L. Scupoli’s Combattimento spirituale, and the Filotea of St. Francesco di Sales. Pius XI, in his apostolic letter to the superiors general of religious Institutes of 19 March 1924 (AAS, 16 [1924], p. 142), places him as the third author to be read by novices, after St. Bernardo and St. Bonaventura. In this, R. joins in the universal esteem which R. has enjoyed also on the part of many saints and of all the founders of religious institutes.
The distinctive character of the work lies in the purity of its style, the clarity and spontaneity of its conversational manner, and the solidity with which the author constructs the edifice of perfection upon the terrain of practical life, presenting the virtues as in action, without dramatic artifices, but through the simple observation of what takes place in life. It is not without some defects, namely, certain exaggerations, occasional inaccurate applications of scriptural texts, and several examples that do not withstand profound historical criticism.