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Faustino Arévalo

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A learned Jesuit hymnographer and patrologist, born 23 July, 1747. at Companario in Estremadura (Spain); died at Madrid, 7 January, 1824. He entered the Society in 1761, but was deported to Italy on the occasion of the deportation of the Jesuits from Spain (1767). There he won the esteem and confidence of Cardinal Lorenzana, who proved a Maecenas for the young Spanish Jesuit, bore the expenses of his learned works, and made him his executor. Arévalo was much esteemed at Rome and held various offices of trust, among them that of "pontifical hymnographer"; he was made theologian of the Penitenzieria (see Curia Romana) in 1809, in succession to the learned Muzzarelli. In 1815 he returned to Spain, recalled by King Ferdinand, entered the restored Society, and became provincial of Castille (1820). His principal works are "Hymnodia Hispanica" (Rome, 1786), a restoration of ancient Spanish hymns to their original metrical, musical, and grammatical perfection. (This work was much esteemed by Cardinal Mai and Dom Guéranger. Among the dissertations that accompany the main work is a curious one on the breviary of Cardinal Quignonez.) "Prudentii Carmina" (Rome, 1788-89, 2 Vol., 4to); "Dracontii Carmina" (Rome, 1791), the poems of a fifth-century Christian of Roman Africa; "Juvenci Historiae Evangelicae Libri IV" (Rome, 1794); "Caelii Sedulii Opera Omnia" (Rome, 1813); "S. Isidori Hispanlensis Opera Omnia" (Rome, 1813); "Missale Gothicum" (Rome, 1804). Arévalo stands in the front rank of Spanish patristic scholars. He shed great luster on the Church of Spain by his vast learning, fine literary taste, and patriotic devotion to the early Christian writers of his fatherland.