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[German Version] (Span.: Teresa de Jesús; Mar 28, 1515, Ávila – Oct 4, 1568, Alba de Tormes, Salamanca), founder of the Discalced Carmelites (Aug 24, 1562, for women, Nov 28, 1568, for men), mystic, saint (Mar 12, 1622; feast day Oct 15), and the first woman to be named a Doctor of the Church (Sep 27, 1970; Doctores ecclesiae). Her father, Alonso Sánchez de Cepeda, was converted from Judaism as a child; her mother, Beatriz de Ahumada, was a member of the lower gentry. After reading many legends of…

[German Version] The encomienda (from Lat. commendare, “entrust,” “commend to”) or repartimiento (from Lat. repartire, “divide, distribute”) was an institution of the Spanish colonial system (not really comparable to the European commendam associated with religious orders) introduced on Hispaniola in 1504 to bring the natives to Christian teaching (Doctrina) and to a Christian lifestyle ( policía) under the care of a Spaniard; it degenerated, however, into a system of serfdom similar to slavery. The Do…

[German Version] (c. 1489, Spain – after 1562, place unknown), Dominican missionary. Minaya was a missionary in America (Mexico and Nicaragua), sometimes with B. de las Casas. In 1536/1537 he was in Spain and Rome. In 1537 he obtained two statements from Pope Paul III about the American mission: Pastorale officium (brief dated May 29 to the archbishop of Toledo with extensive authority to excommunicate slaveholders) and Sublimis Deus (bull dated Jun 2 on peaceful evangelism and the human dignity of the Indians). Charles V and the president of the crown council, …

[German Version] (Jul 19, 1731, Santiago de Chile – Jun 17, 1801, Imola, Italy). Lacuza joined the Jesuits in 1747 in Santiago, where he preached and taught. In 1767, when the Jesuits were outlawed, he went into exile in Imola (then in the Papal States). There under the pseudonym Juan Josafat Ben-Ezra he composed an extensive work on the second coming of Christ and the conversion of the Jews, in which he espoused a moderate chiliasm (Millenarianism/ Chiliasm). It first appeared in print in 1824, u…

[German Version] (1482, Córdoba, Spain – May 4, 1521, Hispaniola), OP, entered the order of Dominicans around 1500, and in September 1510 arrived in Hispaniola as acting superior of the first Dominican community. Under his leadership, on Dec 21, 1511 A. de Montesinos gave an epoch-making sermon against the oppression of the native population, which is considered the “beginning of prophetic theology” in the New World; against the governor Diego Kolumbus Córdoba de…

[German Version] (1484, Seville – Jul 18, 1566, Madrid). From 1502 to 1514, Las Casas was a prospector, field chaplain (ordained priest in 1507), and encomendero in Hispaniola (Dominican Republic, Haiti) and Cuba. At Pentecost in 1514 he was converted to a messianic Christianity out of pity and compassion for the Indians (Native American Indians), in whom he saw “scourged Christs.” Appointed Protector de los Indios by Cardinal F. Jiménez de Cisneros in 1516, he led an unsuccessful mission in Hispa…

[German Version] (Jul 20, 1533, Pamplona – Jun, 1578, on the high seas near Manila). In 1554, de Rada entered the Order of St. Augustine. He was a missionary, linguist, geographer, mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer. After studying in Paris and Salamanca, he became a missionary in Mexico (1561); on Nov 21, 1564 he accompanied the expedition of Miguel López de Legazpi to the Philippines, with Father André de Urdaneta; between 1565 and 1572 he was a missionary in Cebu, where he became provinc…

[German Version] In the Spanish colonial empire, this was initially a mission district, in which a priest ( doctrinero) instructed the indigenous populations in Christian doctrine ( doctrina christiana); later, it was a de facto parish ¶ with benefices and tithes. Established by mendicant orders, the doctrina led after the Council of Trent to a bitter, protracted controversy between those born in the colonies and Spanish members of the regular and secular clergy, which …

[German Version] (Antón; c. 1485, Spain – Jun 27, 1540, Venezuela); 1502, made his profession in the Dominican order. In 1510 Montesinos went to Hispaniola (Dominican Republic, Haiti) with the first Dominican community under the leadership of P. de Córdoba. On Dec 21, 511 (4th Sunday in Advent) Montesinos in an epoch-making sermon condemned the oppression of the indigenous population (“Are they not human beings …?”), thus marking “the beginning of prophetic theology” in the New World. On Dec 28, 1…

[English Version] (T[h]eresia, T[h]erese, Teresa) von Ávila (von Jesus, span.: Teresa de Jesús; 28.3.1515 Ávila – 4.10.1582 Alba de Tormes, Salamanca), Ordensgründerin OCD (24.8.1562 für Frauen, 28.11.1568 für Männer) und Mystikerin, Heilige (12.3.1622, Fest: 15. Oktober), erste Kirchenlehrerin (27.9.1970; Doctores ecclesiae). Ihr Vater, Alonso Sánchez de Cepeda, war als Kind aus dem Judentum konvertiert; ihre Mutter, Beatriz de Ahumada, stammte aus dem niederen Landadel. Nach der Lektüre von Heiligen…

[English Version] Rada, Martín de (20.7.1533 Pamplona – Juni 1578 auf hoher See bei Manila), 1554 Eintritt in den OSA, Missionar, Sprachforscher, Geograph, Mathematiker, Astronom und Astrolog; Studien in Paris und Salamanca; 1561 Missionar in Mexiko; mit Pater André de Urdaneta begleitete er am 21.11.1564 die Expedition von Miguel López de Legazpi nach den Philippinen; 1565–1572 Missionar in Cebú, dort 1572 Provinzial; er unternahm zwei Reisen (1575, 1576) nach China; als erster Europäer identifizie…