Manuel de Sá (b. at

Vila do Conde Vila do Conde (, ; "the Count's Town") is a municipality in the Norte Region, Portugal, Norte Region of Portugal. The population in 2011 was 79,533, in an area of 149.03 km2. The urbanized area of Vila do Conde, which includes the parishes of ...

, Province Entre-Minho-e-Douro, 1530; d. at Arona, Italy, 30 December 1596) was a Portuguese

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

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

, theologian and

exegete Exegesis ( ; from the Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Biblical works. In modern usage, exegesis can involve critical interpretation ...

History

He distinguished himself as a student at the

University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; , ) is a Public university, public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The university ...

, and at the age of fifteen joined the

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 ...

. He soon afterward taught philosophy, first at Coimbra, and next at

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, where he also acted as tutor to

Francis Borgia Francis Borgia (; ; 28 October 1510 – 30 September 1572) was a Spanish Jesuit priest. The great-grandson of both Pope Alexander VI and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, he was Duke of Gandía and a grandee of Spain. After the death of his w ...

, then Duke of Gandia, who was considering joining the Jesuit Order. In 1557, he became one of the early professors of the

Roman College The Roman College (, ) was a school established by St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1551, just 11 years after he founded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). It quickly grew to include classes from elementary school through university level and moved to seve ...

, and commented for two years on the prophecies of prophet Osee and the ''Summa'' of

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 ...

. Exhausted by his labours, he discontinued his lectures, and visited the houses of the Society in

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. Restored to health, he returned to the Roman College, where he filled the chair of

exegesis Exegesis ( ; from the Ancient Greek, Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation (philosophy), interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Bible, Biblical works. In modern us ...

, and found time to give missions. His reputation for scholarship induced

Pope Pius V Pope Pius V, OP (; 17 January 1504 – 1 May 1572), born Antonio Ghislieri (and from 1518 called Michele Ghislieri), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 January 1566 to his death, in May 1572. He was an ...

to appoint him as a member of the commission in charge of preparing the authentic edition of the ''

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

''. This did not prevent him from continuing his apostolic labours and from founding several houses of his order in Upper Italy. After residing for a time at

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, he withdrew to the

professed house In the Society of Jesus, a professed house was a residence where—in a spirit of radical poverty—no member had a stable income. The Jesuit priests who lived there, all of whom have made the profession of the four vows, undertake their spiritua ...

of Arona ( Diocese of Milan), where he died.

Works

His exegetical works are: (Antwerp, 1596), and (Antwerp, 1598), both of which passed through several editions. However short, Sá's annotations clearly set forth the literal sense of the Bible, and bespeak a solid erudition, despite a few inaccuracies which have been sharply rebuked by Protestant critics. His theological treatise entitled (Venice, 1595), however remarkable, was censured in 1603, apparently because the

Master of the Sacred Palace In the Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Theologian of the Pontifical Household () is a Roman Curial office which has always been entrusted to a Friar Preacher of the Dominican Order and may be described as the pope's theologian. The title w ...

treated some of its maxims as contrary to opinions commonly received among theologians, but it was later corrected and has been removed from the Roman Index (1900). Sá's life of John of Texeda, the Capuchin confessor of Francis Borgia, when Duke of Gandia, has not been published.

Main works

* *

References

* De Backer, ''Bibliothèque des écrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus'' (Liège, 1853) *

Hugo von Hurter The von Hurter family belonged to the Swiss nobility; in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries three of them were known for their conversions to Roman Catholicism, their ecclesiastical careers in Austria and their theological writings. Friedric ...

, ''Nomenclator'' (Innsbruck, 1907)

External links

Manuel de Sá in the Archives of Pontifical Gregorian University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Manuel De Sa 1530 births University of Coimbra alumni 16th-century Portuguese Jesuits Portuguese theologians 1596 deaths People from Vila do Conde Portuguese biblical scholars Roman Catholic biblical scholars