GRANADA, FRAY LUIS DE, a celebrated Dominican friar, one of the greatest of the ascetic writers of Spain, was born in 1505, and died in 1588. His father was one of those whom Ferdinand the Catholic induced by valuable privileges and immunities to settle in Granada after the conquest of the Moors. At five years of age Luis was left a destitute orphan by the death of both his parents; but the Conde de Tendilla, alcalde of Alhambra, struck with the singular intelligence of the child, took him under his protection and had him educated with his own sons. Having completed his nineteenth year, Luis determined to devote himself to the Church, assumed the habit of the preaching friars in the convent of Santa Cruz, and became the first evangelical orator of his day. In vain did the queen offer him the bishopric of Viseu, and afterwards nominate him to the metropolitan church of Braga: he declined all ecclesiastical honours and emoluments in order that he might spend his life in what appeared to him a sphere of humble but extensive usefulness.
Luis de Granada wrote several things in Latin; but his Guide to Sinners, his Meditations for the Seven Mornings and Evenings of the Week, and his Symbol of Faith, which are all in the vernacular, are his most celebrated works. His friend, and predecessor of the same school, Juan de Avila, had created, so to speak, a powerful, deeply-coloured language for embodying religious sentiment, and Granada beautified it by retouching it with light and shade, giving it additional harmony, fluency, and dignity. These authors long seem to have been considered the great models for Spanish prose; and though we cannot enter into the rapture of the Spanish critics in extolling the power and pathos of their effusions, yet we may mention those on the sufferings and death of the Saviour as exquisite specimens. The Descent into Hell, to emancipate the spirits there imprisoned, we consider the finest specimen of the style and eloquence of Luis de Granada. This is justly considered one of the most sublime passages in the Spanish language. Fray Luis de Granada lived to the age of 83, honoured by all ranks, and died in a convent at Lisbon, where he had spent his declining years in strict seclusion.