Fray Juan de la Anunciación

Born at Granada in Spain, probably 1514; died 1594. He went to Mexico, where he joined the Augustinians in 1554. He was several times prior of the convents of his order at Mexico and Pueblo, and twice definidor. He died at the age of eighty. He was also rector of the college of San Pablo. Fray Juan belongs to the class of religious so numerous and so little known, or at least considered, who in the sixteenth century devoted themselves with special attention to the literary and religious education of the Indians. He published in Mexico three books, which are of at least linguistic value today, and were originally useful for the instruction of the aborigines of Nahuatl stock. The earliest, that of the year 1575, is a “Doctrina Christiana” in Mexican (Nahuatl) and Spanish. In the same year he published “Sermones para publicar, despedir la Bulla de la Sancta Crusada,” in Mexican and Spanish. He was then sub-prior of the convent of St. Augustine in Mexico. Finally, in 1577, there appeared his “Sermonario en Lengua Mexicana. . .con un Catecismo en lengua Mexicana y Espanyola, con el Calendario.” Very few copies of these works are known to exist.