Father Hortensio Felix Paravicino y Arteaga, O.SS.T.

Portrait of Father Hortensio Felix Paravicino y Arteaga, O.SS.T. painted by El Greco circa 1609 (part of the collection of the Museum of Arts in Boston).

He was a renowned preacher, theologian and poet during Spain's golden age of letter and political power. He completed his liberal arts studies at the Jesuit college of Ocaña. He joined the Trinitarians at Madrid in 1600, and graduated from the universities of Alcalá and Salamanca.  In 1605 he transferred briefly to the Discalced Trinitarians but rejoined the Calced and was elected to various high offices.  Paravicino was the unrivaled orator of the age.  After King Philip III and King Philip IV chose him as court preacher, he was dubbed "Preacher to kings and king of Preachers" His literary reputation rests primarily on several poems and numerous sermons, panegyrics and eulogies which he wrote and are considered classics in their genre. He wrote under the pseudonym of Felix de Arteaga and was friends with Góngora y Lope de Vega (whose daughter was a Trintarian nun).  One of Felix de Arteaga's famous literary works is La Gridonia. Father Hortensio lived and died in the Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity of Atocha St. in Madrid. 

Contributed by Sr. Coraly

Marcela de San Felix - She was the illegitimate daughter of Lope de Vega and the actress Micaela de Lujan. She adopted the name of Marcela de San Félix and lived in the convent of St. Ildefonse of the Discalced Trinitarians in Madrid since age sixteen until she was eighty-two years old.