EYZAGUIRRE, JOSÉ IGNACIO VÍCTOR DE

Chilean clerical and political leader, founder of the South American College in Rome; b. Santiago, Feb. 25, 1817; d. on board ship in the Mediterranean, Nov. 16, 1875. His family was distinguished in political and religious affairs. He was ordained after becoming a lawyer. At 27 he was chosen a member of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Chile and secretary of its Academy of Sacred Sciences. In 1850 he published Historia eclesiástica, política y literaria de Chile, which was awarded a prize by the university and was later translated into French. Between 1847 and 1852 he served as dean of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Chile and vice president of the chamber of deputies.

The violent turn of political events in Chile, which compromised his priestly character, caused him to leave the country and to travel in Europe for four years. These travel experiences, which included a tour of the Holy Land, were described in El Catolicismo en presencia de sus disidentes (Paris 1855), translated into various languages and praised by Pius IX, Montalembert, Lacordaire, and García Moreno. The pope wished to make him a titular bishop and to have him join the papal diplomatic service, but Eyzaguirre declined. However, he did offer to assist in the establishment of a seminary in Rome for the education of priests for Latin America. For two years he unselfishly toured all the countries of the vast hemisphere to interest the bishops in the undertaking. In 1858 he was able to inaugurate in Rome the South American College, which has achieved considerable prestige. Pius IX honored Eyzaguirre for his work as founder with the title prothonotary apostolic ad instar participantium. In 1859 he published Los intereses católicos en América, which contains his travel impressions and reflects the condition of the Church in the New World. The following year, the Holy See utilized his experience and entrusted him with a difficult religious mission in Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. At the time of his death he was returning to Rome after having made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

Bibliography: c. silva cotapos, Monseñor José Ignacio Víctor Eyzaguirre (Santiago 1919).

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