Francisco de Osuna

Francisco of Osuna, O.F.M. (1492 or 1497 – c. 1540), was a Spanish Franciscan friar and author of some of the most influential works on spirituality in that nation in the 16th century.

His book The Third Spiritual Alphabet influenced Saint Teresa of Jesus. It is considered a masterpiece of Franciscan mysticism. His premise in the book is that friendship and communion with God are possible in this life through cleansing one's conscience, entering one's heart, resting in loving stillness, and then rising above the heart to God alone.

Francis was born in the village of Osuna, in the province of Seville, in either 1492 or 1497 (he himself was unsure), of poor peasants whose names are not recorded. In his writings, he described his ancestors as having long been in the service of the Counts of Ureña. Francis himself entered military service while in his teens, in the course of which he saw action at the conquest of Tripoli (25 August 1510) by Spain under Pedro Navarro, Count of Oliveto.

After his return to Spain from the campaign, Francisco chose to embark on a career in the Church. To this end he enrolled at the University of Seville, where he studied Latin and rhetoric. Shortly after this, he set out with a friend on a pilgrimage to the great shrine of St. James the Greater at Santiago de Compostella. In the course of this journey, according to his own account, he apparently had a religious experience. He completed his studies in 1513, whereupon he received the habit of the Observant branch of the Order of Friars Minor, with the Province of Castile. This was a reform movement in the Order then becoming widespread in Spain, which sought to re-establish the primacy of prayer and poor living as practiced by their holy founder, St. Francis of Assisi.

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