JOHN OF MATHA, ST.

Founder of the Trinitarians; b. Faucon (Provence), France, June 23, 1160; d. Rome, Italy, Dec. 17, 1213. He studied and was ordained at Paris and there, presumably, founded the trinitarians in 1197, obtaining approval of his order from innocent iii in 1198 or soon after. The order, whose principal houses were at Cerfroid (Dept. Aisne, France) and Rome, devoted itself to ransoming Christians carried into slavery in Africa by the Muslims. John propagated his institute in Italy and Spain as well as France. His alleged connection with felix of valois is unhistorical, and details of his life are very uncertain since the early Trinitarians failed to preserve their archives. Hence the above few facts about John's life are all that can be known with certainty. Stories of his many miracles and of his personal journeys to Africa are largely the invention of 15th and 16th century Trinitarians. John's relics were taken to Madrid in 1655, and in that year and again in 1694 his cult was officially pproved.

Feast: Feb. 8.

Bibliography: p. deslandres, L'Ordre des Trinitaires, 2 v. (Paris 1903). g. antignani, Vita di Giovanni de Matha e ripercussioni della sua opera nei tempi (Siena 1982). r. castaÑo, Nacido para la liberación: San Juan de Mata (Córdoba 1985). a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, rev. ed. h. thurston and d. attwater, 4v. (New York 1956) 1:276–278, indicates the deficiencies in the early history of the Trinitarians.

[a. g. biggs]