Today we encounter the first Doctor of the Church to live in the modern era: St. John of Ávila (1499 or 1500-1569), who lived during the first half of the sixteenth century. He was born on January 6, 1499 [or 1500] in Almodóvar del Campo (Ciudad Real, in the Archdiocese of Toledo). He was the only son of devout Catholic parents: Alonso Ávila and Catalina Gijón. When John was fourteen, he went to the University of Salamanca to study law. John had a profound conversion during his fourth term of studies at the university. At the end of that term he returned home to devote himself to prayer and meditation. By 1520 John felt called to study for the priesthood. He went to the University of Alcalá de Henares to study theology and the humanities to prepare himself for that calling. In 1526 he was ordained a priest. Although he desired to go as a missionary to the West Indies, the Archbishop of Seville dissuaded him from taking that course of action and asked him to carry out his priestly ministry in Spain. For the next several years he devoted himself to preaching and spiritual direction while continuing to study theology at the College of Saint Thomas where he might have been granted the title of “Master.” In 1531 because of a misunderstanding over a homily that he had delivered, John was imprisoned. While he was in prison John began writing the first version of his great work, Audi, Filia. In those years he received the grace of an unusually profound insight into the mystery of God’s love and the great benefits bestowed on humanity by Jesus Christ our Lord and Redeemer. Thereafter these were to be pillars of his spiritual life and central themes of his preaching. After he was acquitted in 1533, he continued to preach with considerable success among the people and before the authorities. He chose to move to the Diocese of Córdoba where he received incardination. In 1536 the Archbishop of Granada summoned him because he desired to have John’s counsel. There, in addition to continuing his work of evangelization, he completed his studies at the university. Thanks to his insight into the times and his solid academic training, John was an outstanding theologian and a true humanist. He proposed the establishment of an international court of arbitration to avoid wars and patented a number of engineering devices. Above all he devoted himself to encouraging the Christian life of those who readily listened to his preaching and followed him everywhere. John was especially concerned with the education of men and young boys, especially those studying for the priesthood. He founded several minor and major colleges which, after the Council of Trent would become seminaries along the lines laid down by the Council. He also founded the University of Baeza, which was known for centuries for its success in training clerics and laity. After traveling on a preaching tour through Andalusia and other regions of Central and Eastern Spain in 1554, John, who was already ill, withdrew to a simple house in Montilla (Córdoba), where he exercised his apostolate through an abundant correspondence and the preparation of several of his writings.The Archbishop of Granada wanted to take John as his theological expert to the last two sessions of the Council of Trent. Prevented from traveling because of ill health, he drafted his Memoriales, which were to have great influence on the those who had gathered for that great assembly. On the morning of May 10, 1569, John died, surrounded by disciples and friends. St. John of Avila was a contemporary, friend, and counselor of great saints and one of the most celebrated and widely esteemed spiritual masters of his time. St. Ignatius of Loyola, who held him in high regard, was eager for John to enter the nascent “Company” which was to become the Society of Jesus. Although John himself did not enter, he sent some thirty of his best students to the Society. Juan Ciudad, later St. John of God, the founder of the Order of Hospitallers, was converted by listening to the preaching of John of Avila and thereafter relied on John of Ávila as his spiritual director. St. Francis Borgia, later the General of the Society of Jesus, was another important convert thanks to the help of Fr. Ávila. St. Thomas of Villanova, Archbishop of Valencia, promoted Fr. Ávila’s catechetical method in his diocese and throughout the south of Spain. Among Fr. Ávila’s friends were St. Peter of Alcántara, Provincial of the Franciscans and Reformer of the Order and St. John de Ribera, Bishop of Badajoz, who asked John of Ávila to provide preachers to renew his diocese and later, as the Archbishop of Valencia, kept a manuscript in his library of eighty-two of John of Ávila’s sermons. St. Teresa of Jesus, now a Doctor of the Church, underwent great trials before she was able to send John of Ávila the manuscript of her Autobiography. St. John of the Cross, also a Doctor of the Church, was in contact with John of Ávila’s disciples who helped him in the Carmelite reform. Saint Bartholomew of the Martyrs, a Dominican, was acquainted with John of Ávila’s life and holiness through common friends, and many others acknowledged the moral and spiritual authority of St. John of Ávila, who was named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012. Until next week,…….Fr. John