HIERONYMITES (LOS JERÓNIMOS)

Name given to various congregations of the 14th and 15th centuries in Spain and Italy.

The Spanish Congregation of Hermits of St. jerome, known as Hieronymites or Jerónimos, was organized by Pedro Fernandez Pecha, the royal chamberlain, who died in 1374. On October 18 of the previous year Pope Gregory XI had given his approbation to the order. Soon it established numerous houses throughout Spain. Among the most important were San Bartholomé de Lupiana, near Toledo; Guadalupe in the province of Cáceres; San Jerónimo el Real in Madrid; Yuste in the province of Guadalajara, to which charles v retired in 1555; San Lorenzo del escorial, the palace monastery erected by Philip II outside Madrid; and others in Seville and Granada. In 1499 King Manuel of Portugal established the Hieronymites in the monastery of Belen. A community of Hieronymite nuns was founded by María Garcías (d.1426) in the convent of San Pablo in Toledo and survived until the suppression of 1835 by the Spanish government. The Hieronymites followed the rule of St. augustine, under the direction of a general elected every three years by a general chapter. Each convent retained a high degree of autonomy. The observance was quite strict. The habit consisted of a white tunic, a brown scapular, a capuche, and a mantle worn in the choir and outside the monastery. Black was later adopted as the color of the scapular and mantle. The Hieronymites were highly influential in the spiritual and cultural work of the Church during the late 15th and 16th century. They also participated in the evangelization of the New World. One of the most distinguished Hieronymites, Hernando de Talavera, served as confessor to isabella the Catholic and after the conquest of Granada in 1492 became the first archbishop of that city. His conciliatory policy toward the Muslims, however, was unacceptable to more intransigent Spanish clerics. philip ii succeeded in uniting all the Hieronymite monasteries in the peninsula under a single superior, but problems of organization and discipline became acute in later days. In 1780 King Charles III obtained from the Holy See broad authority to solve these problems. Suppressed in 1835, together with other religious orders, the Hieronymites began (1957) to reestablish themselves in Segovia.

Entirely independent congregations of hermits of St. Jerome included those of Fiesole, organized by Carlo de Montegranelli (d. 1417); the congregation of Peter Gambacorta of Pisa (d. 1435); and the Observants or congregation of Lombardy, founded by Lope de Olmedo (d.1433), who was a former general of the Spanish congregation.

Bibliography: p. de la vega, Cronica de los frayles de la orden del bienaventurado sant Hieronymo (Alcalá 1539). f. a. de montalvo, Historia general de la Orden de San Gerónimo (Salamanca 1704). ignacio de madrid, "La Orden de San Jerónimo en España. Primeros pasos para una historia crítica," Studia monastica 3 (1961) 409–427.

[j. f. o'callaghan]