LEZANA, JUAN BAUTISTA DE

Carmelite canonist, theologian, and historian; b. Madrid, Nov. 23, 1586; d. Rome, March 29, 1659. He made his profession of vows in Madrid in December of 1602. After studying philosophy at Toledo, he pursued his theological courses at houses of his order and at the Universities of Salamanca and Alcalá. He came under the influence of Michael de La fuente. Lezana lectured to Carmelite students on Aristotle and Aquinas, and took charge of studies for the order at Toledo. In 1625 he attended the general chapter in Rome, and he remained in that city the rest of his life. Again put in charge of studies, he lectured in theology at the Carmelite house of studies of Santa Maria in Traspontina. For 16 years he also taught metaphysics at the Roman Sapienza. He was made a consulter of the Congregation of the Index by urban viii and a consulter of the Congregation of Rites by innocent x. He refused a bishopric. In 1658 alexander vii appointed him procurator general of his order, and he held various titular provincialates besides acting as counselor to a number of priors general, a position for which he several times received some votes. Lezana was an exemplary religious, dedicated to the observance of the common life, and very assiduous in prayer and study. An indefatigable writer, he published works on asceticism, Canon Law, Mariology (he was an apologist for the Immaculate Conception), theology, and history, besides works of translation. His writings have been influential, highly respected, and widely diffused. However, the first three volumes of his Annales sacri, prophetici, et Eliani Ordinis Beat. Virginis Mariae de Monte Carmeli … (4v., Rome 1645–56) are concerned with the so-called history of the Carmelite Order up to the twelfth century, although the order was not founded until c. 1200. Nevertheless, these volumes are a witness of the seventeenth-century beliefs of the carmelites about their past. The fourth volume takes the history up to 1513 and contains some important documentation. An unfinished fifth volume supposedly preserved in the archives of the order in Rome cannot be traced.

Bibliography: c. de villiers, Bibliotheca carmelitana, ed. g. wessels, 2 v. in 1 (Rome 1927) 1:772–779. a. de saint paul, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, 15 v. (Paris 1903–50) 9.1:502–503. g. mesters, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, 10 v., ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, (Freiburg 1957–65) 6:1002–1003. b. zimmerman, The Catholic Encyclopedia, 16 v. (New York 1907–14) 9:209.

[k. j. egan]