Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo

Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo , was born on November 16, 1538 in Mayorga, a town in the kingdom of León, although his family had a manor house in a village called Mogrovejo (Asturias). His full name was Toribio Alfonso de Mogrovejo y Robledo. His father was called Luis Mogrovejo and belonged to the Asturian nobility; his mother was Ana de Robles. This marriage had five children, being Toribio the third. At the age of 15 he was sent to Valladolid, the center of Spanish political power as it was the seat of royalty and chancery, to study Grammar and Humanities. He obtained a degree in Canon Law in Santiago de Compostela. he was a professor at the University of Salamanca and in 1571 he obtained a scholarship at the Colegio Mayor San Salvador de Oviedo . On the death of an uncle he inherited his copious library, which he had to sell in part due to his need for money. Until then Toribio had not aspired to embrace the ecclesiastical state and had contented himself with receiving the first tonsure. In 1574 when he was preparing to take tests for his doctorate, he was appointed inquisitor of the Supreme Court of Granada, on the recommendation of Diego de Zúñiga, oidor of the Granada chancellery. Four years later, this same official, who at the time occupied a seat on the Supreme Council, proposed Toribio de Mogrovejo to fill the vacancy left by Jerónimo de Loayza. On March 16, 1579 he was appointed Archbishop of Lima by Gregory XIII . He left for Peru in the company of his sister, his brother-in-law and his three nephews. He arrived in Nombre de Dios (Panama) and from there, by land and sea, he arrived in Lima on May 11 of the aforementioned year. He set out to make a detailed visit to his vast diocese, which he began as far south as Nazca, and then to Huánuco and the eastern zone. He returned to Lima for the opening of the third Limense Council, among whose main provisions was the writing of a catechism that, translated into the native languages, would serve for the instruction of the Indians. In 1584 Archbishop Toribio de Mogrovejo undertook a visit that would last six years, returning to Lima for short periods in 1585 and 1588. After his exhausting journey, he finally entered Lima in January 1591.
One of the constant concerns of this illustrious prelate was the creation of a seminary, managing to obtain the respective authorization by royal decree on May 27, 1590. He bought a house very close to the cathedral and admitted some 28 young people to it , who adopted the dress and rules of the San Salvador de Oviedo school, in Salamanca. The interference of the viceroy in the affairs of the seminary made Archbishop Toribio de Mogrovejo decide to close it and it was only reopened in 1602 . In 1593 he began a new visit that took him to Cajamarca, in 1597 he visited Chachapoyas and Huamachuco and, the following year, he climbed the mountains of Lima, going to Canta, Quive, where he had the opportunity to confirm Isabel Flores de Oliva, the future Santa Rosa de Lima, who was then about eleven years old. The fact of being continuously outside the capital visiting his diocese caused him to be the object of strong criticism from the viceroyal authorities, especially from Viceroy Hurtado de Mendoza. In truth, of his twenty-five years as pastor, he only spent eight in his episcopal see. However, his management was quite fruitful:he managed, for example, the foundation of the monastery of Santa Clara (1605), for which he had particular affection, to the point of asking in his will that his heart be buried there, and he started the new factory of the cathedral, which was completed years later (1625). In 1605 he was touring the north of the country and while in Guadeloupe he began to feel bad; nevertheless he visited the port of Chérrepe and Reque, from where he went to Saña where he died on March 23, 1605. He was canonized by Pope Benedict XIII on December 10, 1726 .