MEDRANO, MARIANO

Argentine prelate and philosopher; b. Buenos Aires, 1767; d. there, April 7, 1851. He entered the University of Chuquisaca in 1781 and received his doctorate in theology there. From 1793 to 1795 he taught philosophy in the Colegio de San Carlos, where he had among his students such outstanding personalities as Saturnino Segurola, Julián Navarro, José León Banegas, Martin Thompson, and Mariano Moreno. His unpublished lectures, still extant, show that the basis of his whole doctrine was scholastic, although it had eclectic and Cartesian ramifications. In La Plata he spread the ideas of Francisco suÁrez, the oracle of Argentine youth at the close of the 18th century, who had so much influence on the revolution. Medrano was pastor of the church of La Piedad and vicar-general of the Diocese of Buenos Aires in 1822; in that position he opposed the ecclesiastical reforms of Bernardino rivadavia. In 1829 the government of Viamonte exercised the right of presentation, addressing a request to Gregory XVI for a bishop to be named in the diocese. Medrano was named apostolic vicar and consecrated titular bishop of Aulón. In 1832 he was named bishop of Buenos Aires by Gregory XVI. When the papal bulls to this effect were presented to Attorney General Pedro José Agrelo, he supported national patronage as the right of the respective governments. In order to resolve this involved question, the government in 1834 appointed a board of 39 jurists and theologians to consider 14 propositions presented to them on the state's right of presentation to ecclesiastical office, which seemed to have been ignored in the appointment of Bishop Medrano. After receiving the report, Memorial ajustado, the government accepted the appointment of Medrano. He remained in his bishopric during the Rosas administration and reestablished the ecclesiastical hierarchy.

Bibliography: a. tonda, Rivadavia y Medrano: Sus actuaciones en la reforma eclesiástica (Santa Fé, Argentina 1952). j. c. zuretti, Historia eclesiástica argentina (Buenos Aires 1945).

[v. o. cutolo]