Fray Juan de la
Anunciación
Born at Granada in
Spain, probably 1514; died 1594. He went to Mexico, where he joined
the Augustinians in 1554. He was several times prior of the convents
of his order at Mexico and Pueblo, and twice definidor. He died at
the age of eighty. He was also rector of the college of San Pablo.
Fray Juan belongs to the class of religious so numerous and so little
known, or at least considered, who in the sixteenth century devoted
themselves with special attention to the literary and religious
education of the Indians. He published in Mexico three books, which
are of at least linguistic value to-day, and were originally useful
for the instruction of the aborigines of Nahuatl stock. The earliest,
that of the year 1575, is a "Doctrina Christiana" in
Mexican (Nahuatl) and Spanish. In the same year he published
"Sermones para publicar, despedir la Bulla de la Sancta
Crusada," in Mexican and Spanish. He was then sub-prior of the
convent of St. Augustine in Mexico. Finally, in 1577, there appeared
his "Sermonario en Lengua Mexicana. . .con un Catecismo en
lengua Mexicana y Espanyola, con el Calendario." Very few copies
of these works are known to exist.
DE GRIJALVA,
Cronica de la Orden de San Augustin, en las provincias de la Nueva
Espanya (Mexico, 1624); LEON Y PINELO, Epitome de la Biblioteca
oriental y occidental (edition of 1738; first edition, 1628); NICOLAS
ANTONIO, Biblioteca Hispana Nova (1670 and 1783); BERISTAIN DE SOUZA,
Biblioteca hispano-americana setentrional (Mexico, 1816);
YCAZ-BALCETA, Bibliografia mexicana del Siglo XVI (Mexico, 1886).
AD. F. BANDELIER