Leonardo Castellani (November 16, 1899March 15, 1981) was an

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

priest, essayist, novelist, poet and theologian. Born in

Reconquista, Santa Fe Reconquista is a city in the north of the , from Santa Fe, Argentina, the provincial capital. It is the head town of the General Obligado Department, and it has 99,288 inhabitants according to the . The city lies on a branch of the Paraná Riv ...

, Castellani was ordained as a Jesuit priest in 1930, he studied Philosophy and Theology in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. Back in his country, he worked in the Catholic press and went into politics as a representative of Catholic nationalism. He was among the candidates of the ''Alianza Nacionalista'' party for a seat in Congress in the 1946 elections. Between 1946 and 1949 he clashed with his own

Society of Jesus The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 ...

, who promptly sent him to a two-year confinement in

Manresa Manresa () is the capital of Bages county, located in the central region of Catalonia, Spain. Crossed by the river Cardener, it is an industrial area with textile, metallurgical, and glass industries. The houses of Manresa are arranged aro ...

(

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

). After his petition to attend his brother's funeral was refused, Castellani escaped from Manresa returning to Argentina. He was then expelled from the order and suspended from his functions as a priest, which were repristinated in 1966. Castellani has left a considerable bulk of essays, novels, tales and poetry. Among the wide range of subjects he tackled, his religious writings deserve a special place, especially his sermons on the gospels and his exegesis of John's

Apocalypse Apocalypse () is a literary genre originating in Judaism in the centuries following the Babylonian exile (597–587 BCE) but persisting in Christianity and Islam. In apocalypse, a supernatural being reveals cosmic mysteries or the future to a ...

. His prolific intellectual production includes a commented edition of St.

Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas ( ; ; – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest, the foremost Scholasticism, Scholastic thinker, as well as one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the W ...

’

Summa Theologica The ''Summa Theologiae'' or ''Summa Theologica'' (), often referred to simply as the ''Summa'', is the best-known work of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), a scholastic theologian and Doctor of the Church. It is a compendium of all of the main t ...

. One of his last books is dedicated to

Søren Kierkegaard Søren Aabye Kierkegaard ( , ; ; 5 May 1813 – 11 November 1855) was a Danes, Danish theologian, philosopher, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. He wrote critical tex ...

, for whom he nurtured a great admiration. Father Castellani's style is forceful, lively and of an acute intelligence. Considering his right wing sympathies earned him the dislike of the progressive left wing ''intelligentsia'' on the one hand while his conflicts with the Jesuit order spawned the mistrust of weighty sectors of the Catholic world, it is no surprise that Castellani's work has never reached the position it deserves among Argentine letters. Apart from a restricted group of fervent admirers such as Argentine writers Rafael Squirru and Sebastian Randle (author of a voluminous biography of the priest published by Vortice in 2003) and Cardinal Antonio Quarracino who consider him one of the most significant Argentine intellectuals of the twentieth century, Castellani's work is rather unknown in his own country, especially outside Catholic and Traditionalist circles.

Main Works

Essay

:Religion: *''Cristo ¿vuelve o no vuelve?'' (1951) * ''El ruiseñor fusilado (El místico)'' (1952) * ''El Evangelio de Jesucristo'' (1957) * ''Las parábolas de Cristo'' (1959) * ''Doce parábolas cimarronas'' (1960) * ''El Apokalypsis de San Juan'' (1963) * ''Domingueras prédicas'' (1997) * ''Domingueras prédicas II'' (1998) id. * ''Cristo y los fariseos'' (1999) :Philosophy, Psychology: * ''La catharsis catholique dans les exercises spirituels d'Ignace de Loyola'' (1934) * ''Conversación y crítica filosófica'' (1941) * ''Suma teológica - Santo Tomás de Aquino'' (1944) * ''De Kierkegaard a Tomás de Aquino'' (1973) * ''Psicología humana'' (1995) * ''

Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies seen as originating from conflicts in t ...

'' (1996) * '' San Agustín y nosotros'' (2000) Politic, Literary Criticism * ''La reforma de la enseñanza'' (1939) * ''El nuevo gobierno de Sancho'' (1942) * ''Las canciones de Militis'' (1945) * ''Crítica Literaria'' (1945) * ''Lugones. Sentir la Argentina'' (1964) * ''Decíamos ayer'' (1968) * ''Nueva crítica Literaria'' (1976) * ''Las ideas de mi tío el cura'' (1984) * ''Castellani por Castellani'' (1999) * ''Un país de Jauja'' (1999)

Fiction

* ''Bichos y personas (Camperas)'' (1931) * ''Historias del Norte bravo'' (1936) * ''Martita Ofelia y otros cuentos de fantasmas'' (1939) * ''Las muertes del Padre Metri'' (1942) * ''Los papeles de Benjamín Benavides'' (1954) * ''Su majestad Dulcinea'' (1956) * ''El enigma del fantasma en coche'' (1958) * ''El crimen de Ducadelia y otros cuentos del trío'' (1959) * ''Juan XXIII (XXIV)'' (1964)

Poetry

* ''El libro de las oraciones'' (1951) * ''La muerte de Martín Fierro'' (1953)

External links

*http://hjg.com.ar/txt/lc/index.html *https://web.archive.org/web/20080324033549/http://www.geocities.com/tomistas/castellani.htm *https://web.archive.org/web/20070612220312/http://www.feyrazon.org/Castellani.htm *Series of translated essays by Fr. Castellani: :*http://www.statveritas.com.ar/Libros/Libros-INDICE.htm :*http://tollers.jack.googlepages.com/etvoil%C3%A0%21 1899 births 1981 deaths People from Reconquista, Santa Fe Argentine people of Italian descent Argentine male novelists 20th-century Argentine male writers Argentine male poets Argentine male essayists Argentine Jesuits Former Jesuits Catholic philosophers 20th-century Argentine poets 20th-century Argentine translators 20th-century Argentine essayists 20th-century Argentine novelists 20th-century Argentine Roman Catholic priests {{Argentina-translator-stub