Saint Alonso de Orozco Mena
![[Saint Alonso de Orozco Mena]](saintai2.jpg "22kb jpg portrait of Saint Alonso de Orozco Mena, date unknown, artist unknown; swiped off the Vatican web site; please do not write to ask about the image")
- Memorial
- 19 September
- Profile
- Son of the governor of a castle.
Studied at Talavera de la Reina.
Studied music and served as choir boy in the cathedral of Toledo for three years.
Attended the University of Salamanca at age 14.
Joined the Augustinians in his early 20's.
Spiritual student of Saint Thomas of Villanova.
Ordained in 1527.
Noted preacher.
Augustinian prior in Seville, Spain.
Missionary to Mexico in 1549, but his severe arthritis caused his doctors to send him back to Spain.
Prior of the convent in Valladolid, Spain in 1554.
Preacher to the court of emperor Charles V, moving with the court to Madrid in 1561.
He refused to accept the standard royal stipends, and lived as a humble monk.
His door was always open to anyone seeking spiritual guidance, he spent his free time visiting the sick in hospital, prisoners in jail, and the poor living on the street.
Noted writer in Spanish and Latin, including histories of the Augustinians.
Had a great devotion to the Virgin Mary.
Helped found Augustinian monasteries and convents, and to advance reforms within the Order.
- Born
- 17 October 1500 at Oropesa, Toledo, Spain
- Died
-
19 September 1591 in the College of the Incarnation, Madrid, Spain of natural causes
at his funeral the people of Madrid stormed the College and broke into Alonso's old room, looking for relics of their beloved pastor
interred in the Augustinian church in Valladolid
- Venerated
- 15 August 1732
- Beatified
- 15 January 1882 by Pope Leo XIII
- Canonized
- 19 May 2002 by Pope John Paul II
- Additional Information
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Archdiocese of Toledo -español
Augustinian Saints and Blesseds
Augustinians of the Midwest
Book of Augustinian Saints, by John Rotelle
Catholic Online
Google Directory
San Alonso de Orozco Parroquia -español
Tradition Day by Day
Vatican -english
Vatican -español
Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate
Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Saints, by Matthew Bunson, Margaret Bunson, and Stephen Bunson
- Works
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Rule for a Christian life (1542)
Garden of Prayer and the Mount of Contemplation (1544)
Spiritual Treasury (1551)
The Art of Loving God and Neighbour (1567)
Memorial of Holy Love (1576)
The Book of the Gentleness of God (1576)
Tract on the Crown of Our Lady (1588)
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