Vives y Tutó, Giuseppe Calasanzio

VIVES Y TUTÓ, GIUSEPPE CALASANZIO. - Capuchin theologian, cardinal, b. at S. Andrés de Llevancras (Barcelona) on 5 February 1854; d. at Monteporzio Catone on 7 September 1913.

A priest in 1877, he was elected visitor and general in 1894, definitor general in 1896 and, in 1899, cardinal. Having come to Rome as early as 1884, he was called to be a member of various Congregations, of the commissions for biblical studies and for the codification of canon law. In 1896 he examined, together with the other consultors, the validity of Anglican Ordinations. In 1898 he was appointed theologian consultor of the preparatory commission of the Plenary Council of Latin America, of which he was afterwards a dynamic promoter and honorary president from the day of his elevation to the purple.

He championed the progress and the reorganization of ecclesiastical studies. A worker of exceptional temper, he synthesized the most important branches of the ecclesiastical sciences in admirable compendia reprinted and translated several times: Compendium theologiae moralis (Barcelona 1881); Compendium theologiae dogmaticae (ibid. 1882); Compendium iuris canonici (ibid. 1882); Compendium hermeneuticae sacrae (ibid. 1883); Compendium theologiae ascetico-mysticae (ibid. 1886). His spiritual writings, rich in theological doctrine, with which he propagated devotion to the Eucharist, the Sacred Heart, the Madonna, and St. Joseph, enjoyed a well-deserved diffusion. His name and his activity remain connected with the directives of the pontificate of Bl. Pius X, who had in him a worthy and faithful collaborator.