Casanova y Estrada, Ricardo (1844–1913)
Casanova y Estrada, Ricardo (1844–1913)
Ricardo Casanova y Estrada (b. 10 November 1844; d. 14 April 1913), archbishop of Guatemala (1886–1913). Casanova was born in Guatemala City and studied law at the University of San Carlos. He served in governmental positions until 1874, when he angered President Justo Barrios by deciding a case in favor of an abolished religious community. Being forced by Barrios to parade through the city in a cassock convinced the lawyer to become a priest. Ordained in 1875 and consecrated archbishop in 1886, he issued several pastoral letters defending the church against the Liberals. He was exiled by President Manuel Barillas in 1887 and returned to Guatemala in 1897, spending the rest of his life guiding the church during the dictatorship of Manuel Estrada Cabrera. Casanova was also a poet, writing under the pseudonym of Andrés Vigil.
See alsoAnticlericalism .
BIBLIOGRAPHY
José M. Ramírez Colóm, Reseña biográfica del ilustrísimo y reverendísimo señor arzobispo de Santiago de Guatemala don Ricardo Casanova y Estrada (1896).
Agustín Estrada Monroy, Datos para la historia de la iglesia en Guatemala, vol. 3 (1979), pp. 199-308.
Edward T. Brett