Light of the Christian Soul

Felipe de Meneses, O.P. (1515—1572)

Editor’s note: the following is a brief original biography followed by a selected translation of Luz del Alma Cristiana, a sixteenth-century Spanish work not yet published in English translation. The most recent Spanish edition was published by Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, Fundacion Universitaria Española (Madrid, 1978).

Fray Felipe de Meneses was a friar preacher, priest, theologian, teacher, reformer and spiritual writer of the Spanish Golden Age. He was born at the city of Trujillo around 1515 and entered the Order of Preachers in the same city at the Priory of the Incarnation. After professing his vows, Fray Felipe was sent to Valladolid to study at the Dominican Colegio San Gregorio, an an institution of advanced theological studies for Spanish friars. Having completed his education he remained at San Gregorio where he later became a Master of Theology and Regent of Studies for his province.

A true son of our Holy Father St. Dominic, Fray Felipe was always a man of the Gospel. His chief concern, shared by many contemporaries, was the religious ignorance of the Christian people in Spain. He feared that ignorance made Christians vulnerable to heresy, but he was especially concerned that it kept the faithful from the fullness of life in Christ. To respond to this crisis, Fray Felipe preached the Truth. As a teacher and as Regent of Studies he ensured his Dominican brothers were well-equipped to instruct and evangelize the Spanish faithful. As the prior of both the Toledo and Segovia priories he nurtured Dominican preaching at its wellspring: the common and contemplative life. He himself participated in itinerant preaching bands sent throughout rural Spain.

In 1553, at the request of the bishop of Palencia, Fray Felipe composed a catechism, Luz del Alma Cristiana, to be read piecemeal during the offertory at Holy Mass on Sundays and feast days. This work, which presents the mysteries of faith in everyday Spanish, immensely promoted the formation of the Spanish laity. Fray Felipe’s catechism was also a helpful resource for preachers and was followed by similar works from other Spanish theologians, most notably Luis de Granada, O.P.

As he was teaching in Valladolid, Fray Felipe became the regular confessor to St. Teresa de Ávila, who was in the city establishing a reformed Carmelite foundation. The saint trusted the friar and found him a wise and consoling father, even trusting him to review her autobiography. Fray Felipe became involved in a controversy regarding his Dominican confrére and teacher, the Archbishop Bartolomé Carranza, who was accused of heresy by the Inquisition. Fray Felipe testified in the hearings, vouching for the orthodoxy and virtuous conduct of his mentor, who eventually was found innocent of the charges. Fray Felipe and other contemporary Dominicans served as theological counsel for Bartolomé de las Casas, O.P., in his work for social justice in the New World.

Toward the end of his life, Fray Felipe was delegated by Pope St. Pius V and appointed by King Philip II to oversee the reform of the Mercedarians as part of the more general reform of the Orders in Spain. In 1572, as he was carrying out this reform, he fell ill and died at the ancient Priory of Santa Marta in Galicia. Throughout his life Fray Felipe was known as a humble and wise priest, an exemplary Dominican, and a zealous preacher of Jesus Christ. One illustrious witness to the life of this holy friar was none other than Miguel de Cervantes. The author of Don Quijote grew up listening to the friar’s catechism at Mass and might even have heard him preach. In chapter LXII of his magnum opus he writes: “[Don Quijote] moved on to another case, where he saw them correcting a sheet of a book with the title of ‘Light of the Soul;’ noticing it he observed, ‘Books like this, though there are many of the kind, are the ones that deserve to be printed, for many are the sinners in these days, and lights unnumbered are needed for all that are in darkness.” It is the translator’s hope that, through this small effort, the Light preached by Fray Felipe may shine again, in this age so similar to his Gilded Spain.

A Declaration on the Works of Mercy

What remains to be treated in this third book are the works of mercy. These are far from being last in the benefit and fruit they bear for the soul; rather, they are very important. Two points must be discussed in their regard. First, what is a work of mercy? Second, how many are there and what are they?

What is a Work of Mercy?

This truth will be easily grasped once the nature of mercy is understood, for mercy is the trunk from which all her works sprout. Mercy (misericordia), as St. Augustine teaches, is our heart’s compassion toward another’s misery, the which compassion moves us to aid him if we are able. Mercy is a virtue that likens us to God in that which is most proper to Him, as the Church teaches. Hence it is proper to have mercy. And as the Lord intends to liken us unto Himself in those things that are most proper to Him and that He most values, He asks us that we be merciful. He tells us: “Be merciful even as your heavenly Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36).

God is merciful toward men, for it is He who truly suffers with (se compadece) them. Such was His love for us and such His pity and His mercy that He became man so that He might more completely suffer with us. When He possessed only the divine nature God suffered with us only in the effect, healing our miseries but not partaking of pain or sorrow on their account, for this was impossible. Once made man, God suffered with him both as regards the effect and the affect. As for the effect, He pulled us out from the greatest misery, that is, sin. And as for the affect, not only was He pained for us and took on our sorrow but put on all our pains (so says the prophet Isaiah) and became sorrowful, not in just any way, but even unto death (as He said in the Garden). So Saint Paul wrote: “we have a high priest who knows how to suffer with our misery, having been tempted in all things” (Heb 4:15). How can that be, Saint Paul? That one of whom you speak, did He not know how to suffer with us before? Perchance has He just now begun? Before, he explains, He suffered with us without suffering, now He suffers suffering. He used to supply for all our miseries and heal them without any pain, but once incarnate He healed them with great pains.

N. C. Wyeth — Jim and the Treasure

Therefore the Lord instructs us: Be merciful toward your neighbors as your heavenly Father is merciful toward you. As the Lord comes to our assistance in our need, being under no obligation, so let us assist our neighbors to whom we are obliged. Since He unfailingly aids us in all our needs, let us aid our neighbor in some of his. I say “some” because we are not able to succor men in all their needs, as God can, and those which are possible for us do not always arise, but only once in a while. Behold your neighbor who has nothing to eat, give him what you have left over. See him naked, give him the clothes you do not need. See him ill and with no means for a cure, help him, and save with a few coins the life God gave your neighbor, which once lost cannot be recovered. Your coins, even if they were lost, can be regained, though truly they are not lost but handed over for interest. The Lord says: “Whoever would give his neighbor even a glass of cold water for love of me will not lack his recompense in heaven” (cf. Mt 10:42), which being celestial cannot but be very large and greater in itself than all of the goods of this world heaped together. What recompense, then, will he come to possess for other costlier and hard-earned alms? And what for those that are great and significant?

He makes a wise wager who, following the evangelical counsel, sells all he possesses and gives to the poor. This is that wise man of whom the Gospel speaks who built his house on solid rock with little cost, little effort, and in a moment. This is he who with a small investment has made a great return and for a small price acquired a great fortune. This fortune is not made of movable goods but of lands. He attains not a passing ownership, as is that of any fortune in this life, but a real and everlasting share. This share partakes of the fortune of that powerful king who gives not from necessity but willingly. That fortune is such that, in sharing, His part does not diminish nor does that of the other to whom a share is given; rather, the more the fortune is distributed the greater it becomes. Whoever reflects upon this with a living faith will grasp that in giving alms to the poor he gives them to himself, and in doing good to the poor he does well for himself. Almsgiving should be considered a business and a profitable investment. A man should no less agonize to spend his money on works of mercy than a greedy merchant would in using his in a lucrative deal. So it came to be that once converted St. Francis did away with his property, turned it into money and offered it to God. And since the man to whom he offered the money rejected it, St. Francis tossed it and left it in front of him. From these truths proceeds the fact that many who tighten their belts in matters of food and clothing to have the means to give to the poor. When eating, they count their bites in order to leave something for the poor, even from that which is granted them by right of physical necessity. Like the greedy who seeks to make profit and to have money to purchase an honorable estate, so do these people sacrifice from their eating, drinking, and clothing to amass the true assets that are merit and good deeds to purchase a heavenly estate. Of them the Scriptures tell: “Blessed are they who die in the Lord” (Rev 14:13), for their good deeds follow them. They take good provisions with them, a good coffer, and good treasure with which they cannot fail to acquire there in Heaven the estate they merited here. . . . If mercy is to suffer with a neighbor in his misery while intending to alleviate it if we are able, then the work of mercy is that by which we alleviate this misery—such works as feeding the hungry and clothing the naked.

Translated by Br. Josemaría Guzmán-Domínguez, O.P.