Breve Noticia de la Portentosa Conversion y Admirable Vida del Venerable Padre Don Martin de S. Cayetano y Jorganes. Dieser Artikel ist nicht verfügbar.Breve Noticia de la Portentosa Conversion y Admirable Vida del Venerable Padre Don Martin de S. Cayetano y Jorganes

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A QUERÉTARO MISSIONARY. Small 4to. [14.5 x 10 cm]. (32), 107 pp, (1). Bound in contemporary vellum with ties perfectly preserved; marca de fuego of the Congregación de Propaganda Fide at the famous missionary Colegio de la Santa Cruz in Querétaro on upper fore-edge (BF-12027 or similar), with a contemporary manuscript ex-libris of the same on rear endpaper ("Soy de la Libreria dela Colegio de la Sta Cruz de Queretaro"). Outer margins of ff. A6-7 almost invisibly repaired, probably near to the time of printing. Small paper flaw on D2, otherwise a very well-preserved copy. Sole edition, first issue (licenses dated 1760) of this biography of a Querétaro priest, founder of what is today the Catedral de Querétaro. Martin de San Cayetano y Jorganes (1688-1760) was born in Patzcuaro, Michoacan and served for a time in Villa de San Miguel (Nuevo León), near the modern Texas border. A member of the Order of San Felipe Neri (Oratorians), he settled in Querétaro and died there at the age of 71 on the 5th April 1760; and just a month later, on May 16, Pope Clement XIII finally granted a decree to authorize the construction of a new Oratory in that city. It is somewhat remarkable that the present work was composed and printed so quickly following Don Martin’s death in April: according to the preliminary leaves, it was passed by the censors as early as September 16th of that same year. Aside from his contributions to the founding of the Oratory (now Cathedral) in Querétaro, Martin de San Cayetano y Jorganes seems largely forgotten. The present work is thus a significant source on his life. Chapter III discusses his missionary activities in Villa de San Miguel – where his habit of preaching to the masses even earned him the insult of being called ‘Martin Luther’ by his enemies (pp. 25-26). Jorganes had voyaged to Spain in 1755 to seek support for a new college in Queretaro, and Chapter IV discusses his efforts to found the Oratory there. We also find colorful accounts of his divine gifts: the miraculous cure of a girl at the Colegio de Santa Rosa (p. 65); his struggles with the Devil and his demons ("While he was at the Oratory of San Miguel, the Devil once entered his room in the form of a small Black man with a sharp intellect, asking him for a confession…" (pp. 79-80); and various other supernatural phenomena. Among these was Jorganes’ ability to tell the future: Chapter IX relates "de algunas casos raros, en que se descubre la luz conque el Venerable Don Martin penetrò algunas cosas ocultas, y se le anticipò el conocimiento de otras". Finally, even after death, Jorganes exhibited holy virtues: "Quedò el Cadaver flexible, blanco, y tratable; y tan libre de los horrors que fuele causar la Muerte…" (p. 104). The author of the present work, Hermenegildo Vilaplana (1712-1763), was himself a Franciscan missionary and Inquisitor attached to the Colleges of Queretaro and Zacatecas. In particular, as the title-page states, he was "Vice Comissario de Missiones, y Cronista del Colegio Apostólico de la Santa Cruz de Queretaro". Thanks to its ex-libris markings, the present copy shows evidence of use in the very same Colegio de Santa Cruz de Querétaro, an institution wholly dedicated to the evangelization of local indigenous populations. The Congregación de Propaganda Fide whose marca-de-fuego is found on the present copy was the arm of that Colegio responsible for the education of missionaries – among them St. Junipero Serra, the celebrated ‘Apostle of California’. OCLC shows US copies at Berkeley, Yale, Texas A & M, Texas, and Quincy (IL). The copy at Brown proves to be a microfiche. The copy described in Medina sounds like a ‘second issue’, containing an additional errata leaf with a Licencia dated 28th January 1761, not found here. * Medina 4673 (second issue, with additional license dated 1761).…