Luis of Granada

(1504–88)

   Devotional Writer and Mystic.

   Luis was born Luis Sarriá in Granada, Spain. He joined the Dominican Order in 1525 and, after studying in Valladolid, he spent eleven years in Córdoba restoring a dilapidated convent and reading mystical works. In 1547 he became Prior of Badajoz. For much of the rest of his life, he lived in Portugal, where he was elected Provincial of the Order. A follower of John of Avila, he was a famous preacher in his day and he was the confessor of Queen Catherine and the Duke of Alva. Today he is remembered for his books of spiritual guidance, particularly his Libro de la Oración y Meditación and his Guía de Pecadores. In these he stressed the importance of the inward life. Through the practice of virtue, he believed that the individual could be liberated from the burden of sin and his life would be illumined by the influx of the Holy Spirit. These works were widely read and they influenced among others francis of sales and Vincent de Paul.

   E.A. Peers, Studies of the Spanish Mystics, Vol 1 (1927);

   R.L. Oeschslin, Louis of Granada (1962).