ANDREAS DE SOTO. — Franciscan theologian, born at S. Facundo in Castile in 1552 or 1553, died in the Convent of the Recollects at Brussels on 5 April 1625.
He went to the Low Countries as confessor to the Infanta Isabella in 1599, and remained there for 26 years. He was guardian of the Brussels Convent, then superior and general commissary of the Low Countries and Germany. As confessor, his influence in the religious sphere was immense.
S. is chiefly known as the author of edifying works, almost all of which were printed in Latin in the Low Countries and translated into French and Flemish.
BIBL.: S. Dirks, Hist. litt. et bibliographique des Frères Mineurs..., Antwerp 1886, pp. 142-46; Wadding, Scriptores, p. 19; Sbarela, I, p. 39; Biographie nationale de Belgique, XXIII, pp. 236-242 (with a complete list of works). Pietro Grootens