YEPES, DIEGO de. - Jeronymite writer, bishop of Tarazona, b. in Yepes (Toledo) in 1530 or 1531, d. in 1614 at Tarazona.
Prior of the monastery of La Sisla in Toledo, in 1576 he met St Teresa of Jesus there and for some time heard her confessions. Later, as prior at San Lorenzo el Real (Escorial), he was for many years confessor to Philip II and Philip III. Elected bishop of Tarazona on 27 Sept. 1599, he was a zealous pastor there. An excellent Castilian writer, his name was included in the Catálogo de Autoridades de la Lengua of the Spanish Academy. Among his books should be noted the Historia particular de la persecución de Inglaterra y de los mártires más insignes que en ella ha habido desde el año de 1570... (Madrid 1599); De la muerte del rey Phelipe II (Milan 1607); but above all the great work whose authorship has been contested since the 16th century: Vida, virtudes y milagros de la bienaventurada virgen Teresa de Jesús (Madrid 1587, published several times; Italian tr., Naples 1615), one of the fundamental books on the reformer of the Carmel.