MURIEL, DOMINGO

Jesuit philosopher and canonist; b. Tamanes, near Salamanca, Spain, 1718; d. Faenza, Italy, Jan. 23, 1795. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1734, and was sent to Rio de la Plata in 1748. As professor of philosophy in Córdoba, he introduced the "new or Cartesian philosophy." He was subsequently a professor of moral theology and canon law, rector of the Colegio of Monserrat, and secretary to the provincial. In 1762 he was selected as procurator at the courts of Madrid and Rome; he was in Spain at the time of the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767. During his exile in the Papal States, he was rector and provincial of the province of Paraguay with headquarters in Faenza. The general opinion of his holiness was such that the cause of his beatification was initiated soon after his death. No less distinguished for his knowledge than for his sanctity, he wrote the Fasti novi orbis et ordinationum apostolicarum ad Indias pertinentium breviarium (Venice 1786), and Rudimenta Juris Naturae et Gentium (Venice 1791), as well as several unpublished writings in the archives of Italy and Spain, such as the "Collectanea dogmática de saeculo XVIII" and "Monumenta historica, chronologica, dogmática ab anno 1776 ad annum 1780." Among Muriel's published writings that do not, however, bear his name is his Lettre à l'auteur de l'article jésuite dans le Dictionnaire Encyclopédique (1766). He also wrote the Breve noticia de las misiones vivas de la Compañía de Jesús en la provincia del Paraguay (1766).

Bibliography: g. furlong, Domingo Muriel (Buenos Aires 1934); Domingo Muriel, S.J., y su Relación de las misiones (Buenos Aires 1955).

[g. furlong]