Miguel Molinos

Miguel de Molinos (30 June 1628 – 29 December 1696) was a Spanish mystic, the chief representative of the religious revival known as Quietism.

He was born in 1628 near Muniesa (Teruel), in Aragon, a village around 60 miles south of Zaragoza. His birthdate is unknown, but church records indicate he was baptised on 29 June 1628. He moved to Valencia in his youth and undertook religious education with the Jesuits there at the College of St Paul. He was ordained in 1652, and seemingly took his doctorate shortly thereafter, though it is unclear when or where (both the University of Valencia and the College of St Paul granted doctorates). On 4 June 1662, Molinos was admitted to the local chapter of the School of Christ, a religious brotherhood that would play an important role in his later life in Rome. He seems in these early years in Valencia to have held a number of secondary roles in the chapter’s leadership, at least one of which earned him a place on the chapter’s governing body.

In July 1663, Molinos was chosen to travel to Rome to support the cause of the beatification of, and to report back to Valencia on, the Venerable Francisco Jerónimo Simón (d. 1612), a secular cleric and beneficer of the parish of St Andrews in Valencia. He left Spain in late 1663; he would not return.

There is almost no specific evidence of Molinos's activities in Rome in 1663–1675. It is known that Molinos was affiliated with the Roman chapter of the School of Christ (and, by 1671 at the latest, had become its leader). He also became well known as a spiritual director – and it was in this role that he gained prominence as the leading advocate of the teaching and practice that would come to be known as Quietism. He was a regular correspondent with Princess Borghese, and counted as an admirer, Cardinal Benedetto Odescalchi, who in 1676 became Pope Innocent XI. He also paid frequent visits to the house of the exiled Christina, Queen of Sweden. He was also in these years working on the case of the Venerable Simón; by 1675, however, Molinos had to admit to his superiors in Valencia that the Congregation of Rites had refused to reconsider the case. Molinos’s royal commission and line of credit were revoked, and he was deprived of his official position in the Valencian delegation in Rome.

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