Preacher training: From the Rhetorica Cristiana by Fray Diego Valadés to Antonio Margil de Jesús

Abstract

This article intends to show how the model of the preacher proposed by Fr. Diego Valadés in his Rhetorica Cristiana in 1579 is still valid on the discursive formation of El peregrino septentrional atlante. Delineado en el exemplarissima vida del venerable padre F. Antonio Margil de Jesús by Fr. Isidro Félix de Espinosa in 1737.
Rhetorica Cristiana has its origins at the counter-reforming decisions from the Council of Trent and intend not only to expose the rules to be followed by sacred speakers, but to propose a core of useful knowledge taken from Holy Scriptures, Early Church Fathers, Pagan Sciences and Christian Theology.
In the other hand, Espinosa in his work reaches the ideal writing prescribed by Rhetorica Christiana creating a hagiography that is at the same time, the attain of the holy speaker in the figure of Margil because of the conversion of rebel tribes and damned criollos, and an example of the stylistic of the New Spain Baroque letters.