José Saenz d'Aguirre

Who was José Saenz d'Aguirre?

Joseph Saenz de Aguirre was a Cardinal, and learned Spanish Benedictine.

D'Aguirre was born at Logro, in Old Castile. He entered the congregation of Monte Cassino.

He directed the studies in the Monastery of St. Vincent of Salamanca for fifteen years, and became its abbot. He then qualified in dogmatic theology and inaugurated the course in Holy Scripture at the University of Salamanca.

He was councillor and secretary of the Holy Office and president of its congregation of the province of Spain. His work against the Declaration of the Gallican Clergy of 1682 won him a cardinal's hat and the warm eulogy of Innocent XI.

His correspondence with Bossuet shows how vigorously he combated Quietism. His excessive labors undermined his health, and for many years he suffered from epileptic seizures.

He died suddenly from a stroke of apoplexy. He was buried in the Spanish Church of St. James in Rome, and his heart was deposited in Monte Cassino, as he had requested.