About Cervantes

     I was reading my latest issue of New Oxford Review today.   You may not have gotten your copy  yet of this conservative Catholic periodical.   When you do, be sure to read the article about Miguel de Cervantes who wrote the famous Don Quixote.   I learned some interesting trivia about Cervantes from the article:

            He was born into a devout Catholic family and was baptized in 1547.

            Like most citizens of Spain at that time, he was very devout.

            He was named Miguel after St. Michael.

            His sister, Luisa, became a Carmelite nun.

            He attended the Jesuit Academy in Cordoba.

            While studying in Italy, he heard the pope’s call to save Christendom from the Muslim threat and joined his brothers to serve under Don Juan of Austria.

            At the famous naval Battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571, the winds changed favorably for the Christian fleet just as they finished saying the rosary. 

            Cervantes fought earnestly and was shot three times – twice in the chest and once in his left hand that became crippled for life.

            He was a proud Crusader and proud of the victory over the Muslim fleet at Lepanto thanks to Our Lady of Victory (now Our Lady of the Rosary).

            He and his brothers were captured by the Muslims sometime after the Battle of Lepanto.

            During five years of captivity, he remained devout and did not convert to Islam as many Christian captives did to avoid death.

            He also avoided anal sodomy which was a popular practice among the Moorish military and often done to Christian slave captives.

            He tried to escape four times.

            He was finally ransomed by the Trinitarians, and he remained grateful to this religious order and became a lay member of this order.

            He was excommunicated twice for sequestering wheat from Church property as a quartermaster for the Spanish Armada, but this was a common punishment that only required going to confession to regain forgiveness and ability to retake communion. 

            He became a literary success for writing Don Quixote but remained devout. 

He became known as the Spanish Shakespeare.

            He was known as the father of the novel.

            He joined a very austere chapter of the Trinitarians knows as The Congregation of Unworthy Slaves of the Most Holy Sacrament. 

            This order imposed a simple manner of dress, abstinence from sex and stimulants, daily Mass attendance, and nightly examination of conscience.

            When the Unworthy Slaves became more of a literary society, he left and  joined the Third Order (TOR) of the Franciscans.

           

            He was laid to rest on the same day, 23 April 1616, that Shakespeare died.

            His funeral was attended by both Trinitarians and Franciscans.

            He was buried in a Catholic cemetery in a Franciscan habit.

            It is a popular belief today that he was a critic of the church and an apostate.   This is demonstrably false. 

            He poked fun at aspects of the church in his writings but remained a devout Catholic as were the vast majority of citizens of Spain at that time.