Bartolomé de los Ríos y Alarcón

Bartolomé de los Ríos y Alarcón (* around 1580 in Madrid ; † 1652 ibid) was a Spanish Augustinian monk of the 17th century and a writer .

He came to Brussels in 1622 (as a member of the Congregación de los Esclavos del Dulcísimo Nombre de María , a brotherhood of Marian devotion) and was confessor of the Infanta and from 1598 to 1633 governor of the Spanish Netherlands Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain . In 1635 he became the definitor of his order in Cologne . He died in Madrid.

His main work Phoenix Thenensis (1637) was created during the fighting towards the end of the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Netherlands, on the occasion of the destruction of Tienen in 1635 and Hierarchia Mariana after the capture of Kallo by the Spanish. The Phoenix Thenensis was dedicated to the Cardinal Infante Ferdinand of Spain , who was governor of the Spanish Netherlands at the time and commander in the war against the Dutch and the French allied with them. The destruction of Tienen and the raging of the Franco-Dutch troops against the civilian population in the country and the desecration of hosts and statues of the Virgin was the cause of a series of publications in the Spanish Netherlands. In 1637 a new statue of the Virgin Mary was donated for Tienen, the immediate cause of the Phoenix Thenensis. In addition to sermons and spiritual exercises for the slaves of Mary by Bartolomé de los Rios, it also contains Latin poems by Franciscus van den Enden , the Augustinian teacher Nicasius Baxius (1581–1640), Emmanuel Rodriguez and Petrus Carpentier.

After the success of the Phoenix Thenensis, Bartolomé de los Rios continued this in the Hierarchia Mariana, written for a similar occasion and dedicated to the Cardinal Infante Ferdinand. The small fortified town of Kallo on the Scheldt, of strategic importance for the defense of Antwerp, was conquered by the Dutch in 1638 and recaptured by the Cardinal Infante a few days later. Here, too, a statue of the Virgin Mary and images of saints had been desecrated and in the book were, in addition to the remarks on the veneration of Mary, sermons, retreats and the description of the events that were the occasion of the book, some Latin poems by Franciscus van den Enden ( Caloa ), the historian and Registrar of the city of Antwerp Caspar Gevartius (1593–1666), Petrus de los Rios and Michael Hoyerus (1593–1650).

Works

Phoenix Thenensis e Cineribus Redivivus , Antwerp, Officina Plantiniana 1637
Christ Dominius in Cathedra Crucis Docens et Patiens , Brussels 1645
Vita Coccinea , Antwerp 1646
De Hierarchia Mariana libri sex , Antwerp 1641
De Excellentia et Virtutibus , 1647

Web links

Individual evidence

^ Nephew of the Infanta Isabella

personal data
SURNAME	Ríos y Alarcón, Bartolomé de los
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Spanish Augustinian and writer
DATE OF BIRTH	around 1580
PLACE OF BIRTH	Madrid
DATE OF DEATH	1652
Place of death	Madrid

[1] Nephew of the Infanta Isabella