St. John of Avila
He was born in Almodò del Campo in Southern Spain on the 6th of January 1500 (he was therefore about five years younger than St. John of God). His mother , Catherine Xixon was of noble Christian family, but his father, Alphonsus de Avila, was a Jewish origin. All his life the future saint would have to suffer because of the violent suspicion toward the so-called “New Christians” of Jewish of Muslim ancestry. This, however, does not seem to be the motive for which he has left the University of Salamanca. He enter a religious order for some time, but then returned home.
As a priest, he desired to go to Mexico as a missionary but this plan was frustrated because of his Jewish ancestry. No “New Christian” was allowed by law to “pass to the Indies”. John of Avila dedicated himself therefore to his priestly ministry in southern Spain: teaching Catechism to both children and adults, passing long hours in the confessional, preaching, directing many souls to a greater sanctity of life through the exercise of mental prayer, meditation and recollection.
But there were those driven, no doubt, by jealousy, who denounced him to the Inquisition on the false grounds that his teaching was like that of the Protestants of the north. He was therefore, arrested and passed almost a year in the prison of the Inquisition. He bore his unjust imprisonment with great strength of soul, using the time to translate the Imitation of Christ into the Spanish language, and to begin his own important book “Audi Filia”. Being found innocent of the accusations brought against him, he left the prison without ever uttering a word against those who falsely accused him.
Although Master Avila (as he called) did not take part in the great Council of Trent directly, he had not a little influence in it through correspondence. In Granada, he became the spiritual father of St. John of God as we know well. But he was spiritual director to many other holy people as well: St. Francis Borgia, St. Teresa of Avila and St. Peter Alcantara to name a few.
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