Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/52

 BIBAS

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RIBAS

dinariamente 6, a disnare un poco de menestra et un p>oco de came, et con questo e finite "]. He was ordered in November, 1549, to go to Palermo, to profess rhetoric at the new college which the Society had just opened in that city. He filled this chair for two years and a half, devoting his leisure time to visiting and consoling the sick in the hospitals. Meanwhile St. Ignatius was negotiating the creation of the German College which was to give Germany a chosen clergy as remarkable for virtue and orthodoxy as for learning: his eflforts were soon successful, and during the autumn of 1552 he called on the talent and eloquence of the young professor of rhetoric at Palermo. Ribadeneira amply fulfilled the expecta- tions of his master and delivered the inaugural ad- dress amid the applause of an august assembly of prelates and Roman nobles. He was ordained priest 8 December, 1553 (Epp. mixta;, HI, 179); during the twenty-one years which followed he constantly filled the most important posts in the government of his order. From 1556 to 1560 he devoted his activity to securing the official recognition of the Society of Jesus in the Low Countries. At the same time he was charged by his general with the duty of promulgating and causing to be accepted in the Belgian houses the Constitutions, which St. Ignatius had just completed at the cost of much labour.

But these diplomatic and administrative missions did not exhaust Ribadeneira's zeal. He still applied himself ardently to preaching. In December, 1555, he preached at Louvain with wonderful success, and likewise in January, 1556, at Brussels. On 25 November of the same year he left Belgium and reached Rome 3 February, 1557, setting out again, 17 October for Flanders. His sojourn in the Low Countries was interrupted for five months (Novem- ber, 1558, to March, 15.59); this period he spent in London, having been summoned thither on account of the sickness of Mary Tudor, Queen of England, which ended in her death. In the summer of 1559 he was once more with his general, Lainez, whose right hand he truly was. On 3 November, 1560, he made hLs solemn profession, and from then until the death of St. Francis Borgia (1572) he continued to reside in Italj', filling in turn the posts of provincial of Tuscany, of commissary-general of the Society in Sicily, visitor of Lombardy, and assistant for Spain and Portugal. The accession of Father Everard Mercurian as general of the order brought a great change to Ribadeneira. His health being much im-

Eaircii, he was ordered to Spain, preferably to Toledo, is native town, to recuperate. This was a dreadful blow to the poor invalid, a remedy worse than the disease. He obeyed, but had been scarcely a year in his native land when he began to importune his general by lett<'r to permit him to return to Italy. These solicitations continued for several years. At the same lime his superiors saw that he was as sick in mind a.s in body, and that his religious spirit was some- what shaken. Not only was he lax in his religious observances, but he did not hesitate to criticize the pcjrsons and affairs of the Society, so much so that he was strongly suspected of being the author of the memoirs then circulated through Spain against the Jesuits (Astrain, III, 106-lOj. This, however, was a mistake, and his innocence was recognized in 1578. He it was who tfX)k upon himself the task of refuting the calumnies which mischief-makers, apparently Jesuits, went about dissfiminating against the Con- stitutions of the Socif'ty, nor did he show less ardour and filial piety in making known the life of St. Ignatius Iy«^jyola and promoting his canonization.

Outside of the Society of Jchuh, liibadeneira is chiefly known for his literary works. From the day of his arrival in Spain to repair his failing health until the day of his death his career was that of a brilliant writer. His compatriots regard him as a

master of Castilian and rank him among the classic authors of their tongue. All lines were familiar to him, but he preferred history and ascetical literature. His chief claim to glory is his Life of St. Ignatius Loyola, in which he speaks as an eye-witness, ad- mirably supported by documents. Perhaps the work abounds too much in anecdotal details which tend to obscure the grand aspect of the saint's character and genius (Analecta Bolland., XXIII, 513). It ap- peared for the first time in Latin at Naples in 1572 (ibid., XXI, 230). The first Spanish edition, re- vised and considerably augmented by the author, dates from 1583. Other editions followed, all of them revised by the author; that of 1594 seems to contain the final text. It was soon tran.slated into most of the European languages. Among his other works must be mentioned his "Historia eclesidstica del Cisma del reino de Inglaterra" and the "Flos sanctorum", which has been very popular in many countries. Some unpublished works of his deserve publication, notably his History of the persecution of the Society of Jesus and his History of the Spanish Assistancy.

Astrain, Historia de la CompaMa de Jesus en la Asistencia de Espafia (Madrid, 1902-09) ; Prat, Hisloire du Pire Rihadeneyra, disciple de S. Ignace (Paris, 1862) ; Sommervogel, Bibliothique de la C. de J., VI, 1724-58; de la Fuente, Obras escojidas del Padre Pedro de Rivadeneira, con tma noticia de su vida y juicio crltico de sus escritos in Biblioteca de aulores Espafioles, LX (1868) ; Monumenta historica S.J.; Ignatiana, ser. I, Epistolce, II; ser. IV, I; PoLANCO, Chronicon Soc. Jesu, VI; Epistolce mixtoe, V.

Francis Van Ortroy.

Ribas, Andres P£rez de, pioneer missionary, historian of north-western Mexico; b. at Cordova, Spain, 1576; d. in Mexico, 26 March, 1655. He joined the Society of Jesus in 1602, coming at once to America, and finishing his novitiate in Mexico in 1604. In the same year he was sent to undertake the Chris- tianization of the Ahome and Suaqui of northern Sinaloa, of whom the former were friendly and anxious for teachers, while the latter had just been brought to submission after a hard campaign. He succeeded so well that within a year he had both tribes gathered into regular towns, each with a well-built church, while all of the Ahome and a large part of the Suaqui had been baptized. The two tribes together num- bered about 10,000 souls. In 1613, being then superior of the Sinaloa district, he was instrumental in procuring the submission of a hostile mountain tribe. In 1617, in company with other Jesuit mission- aries whom he had brought from Mexico City, he began the conversion of the powerful and largely hostile Yaqui tribe (q. v.) of Sonora, estimated at 30,000 souls, with such success that within a few years most of them had been gathered into orderly town communities. In 1620 he was recalled to Mexico to assist in the college, being ultimately appointed provincial, which j)Ost he held for .several years. After a visit to Rome in 1613 to take part in the elec- tion of a general of the order, he devoted himself chiefly to study and writing until his death.

He left numerous works, religious and historical, most of which are still in manusorijjt, but his reputa- tion as an historian rests secure upon his history of the Jesuit missions of Mexico published at Madrid in 1645, one year after its completion, under the title: "His- toria de los Triunfos de Nuestra Santa Fe entre gentes las mds bdrbaras . . . conseguidos por los soldados de la milicia de la Compania de Jesus en las misiones de la Provincia de Nueva- Espafia". Of this work Bancroft says: "It is a complete history of Jesuit work in Nueva Vizcaya, practically the only history the country had from 1590 to 1644, written not only by a contemporary author but by a promi- n(!nt actor in the events narrated, who had access to all the voluminous correspondence' of his order, com- paratively few of which documents have been pre- served. In short, Ribas wrote under the most