Manuel Lacunza
| Manuel Lacunza Diaz SJ | |
|---|---|
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| Born | July 19, 1731 Santiago, Chile |
| Died | c. 18 June 1801 Imola, Italy |
| Occupation | Priest |
Manuel Diaz Lacunza S.J. (born Santiago, Chile, 1731; died Imola, Italy around June 18, 1801) was a Jesuit priest who used the pen-name Juan Josafat Ben-Ezra for his main work on the interpretation of the prophecies of the Bible.
The son of Charles and Josefa Diaz, wealthy merchants engaged in colonial trade between Lima and Chile, Manuel entered the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1747. After the usual training in a seminary he took his full vows and was ordained priest in 1766 but began his service as a teacher of grammar in the Colegio Máximo de San Miguel in the Chilean capital, where he gained moderate fame as a pulpit orator.
In 1767 King Charles III of Spain expelled the Jesuits from Spain and its possessions, (including South America) and Lacunza was sent into exile, first in Cadiz and then in the Italian town of Imola, near Bologna in central Italy, where he found refuge with other Chilean Jesuits. Charles threatened to withdraw his subsidy of 100 piastres per annum if any Jesuit wrote in self-defence or in criticism of this move. Lacunza's life as a priest-in-exile was made more difficult when the next pope, Pope Clement XIV, issued the brief, Dominus ac Redemptor, which banned Jesuits from celebrating Mass or other sacraments. In addition, his family in Chile fell on hard times and the remittances on which Lacunza relied became increasingly scarce.
During this time, Lacunza began an intensive programme of study, first of the Church Fathers and then of Biblical prophecies. He read all the commentaries available to him and after 1779 restricted his study solely to the Scriptures.
After five years communal living with the other exiled Jesuits, Lacunza retired to a house on the outskirts of Imola where he lived alone, apart from a mysterious person whom he calls in his letters, "my good mulatto". During this time some of his Jesuit colleagues described him as "a man whose retirement from the world, his parsimonious way of life, the neglect of his own person, even from the comforts necessary to human life, and his indefatigable application to study, earned him the respect and admiration of all".
In 1773 Lacunza received another blow when, by the bull "Dominus ac Redemptor", the pope dissolved the Jesuit order in return for territorial concessions by France and Spain who were threatening the Papal States, the so-called "Patrimony of St Peter". Thus, by decree, Lacunza was reduced to a secular status.
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