José Torrubia
José Torrubia was born in 1698 in Spain, professed his vows as priest and as a Franciscan in 1714. He was also a naturalist (interested in Geology and palaeontology).[1]
He volunteered for missionary service in the Philippines, arriving there in 1721. He traveled to Canton.[2] His talents were recognized early and he moved rapidly into significant positions, most notably in 1734 when he was picked to represent the Philippine Franciscans in Spain and Rome.[3]
After almost a decade in Spain, he had become embroiled with the Philippine Franciscans over disputed interpretations of his instructions as their representative.[4]
He went to Mexico with Spanish Franciscans destined for the Philippines, but intuiting that his welcome there would be uncertain but probably hostile, he joined a Mexican group of Franciscans in 1745. The disputes engendered a small mountain of paper as the parties tried to convince the Spanish king, Charles III and the Pope, Benedict XIV of the validity of their competing claims and charges. At one point Torrubia was jailed in Cuba, but ultimately Spanish royal officials, ecclesiastical authorities, and even the Franciscans in Spain and Rome absolved him of all fault and dismissed the charges brought by the Philippine Franciscans. He went on to hold important positions in Rome, dying there in 1761 with a significant body of published work to his credit.[5]
Honours
In 1825, botanist Vell. published Torrubia (a flowering plant in the family Nyctaginaceae) but it was later classed as a synonym of Guapira.[6] Then in 1885 mycologist, Jean Louis Émile Boudier published Torrubiella, which is a genus of fungi in the family Cordycipitaceae and also named after Jose.[7]
From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia
José Torrubia — Born towards the end of the seventeenth century at Granada, Spain; died in 1768 in the monastery of Aracoeli. He entered the order of St. Peter of Alcántara at Granada. In the Philippine Islands, whither he had gone as missionary and as secretary to Foguéras, the commissioner-general of Mexico, he was imprisoned for four months, as a result of opposition on the part of the religious orders to reforms attempted by the commissioner. He returned to Cadiz and thence went to Rome, where he withdrew from the order of St. Peter and became a Franciscan. In 1732 he was again in the Philippine Islands as superior of a convent. He travelled in America and Asia, remaining for a time at Canton, China. In 1750 he returned to Spain, whence he made three trips to Rome. A linguist, scientist, collector of fossils and of books, writer on historical, political, and religious subjects, Torrubia was held in high esteem in Spain and at Rome, and by none more so that by Pope Benedict XIV. Among his many works may be mentioned; "Roman Ceremonial of the Discalced Religious of St. Francis in the Province of St. Gregory in the Philippines" (Manila, 1728); "Disertacion histórico-politico-geográfica de las islas Filipinas" (Madrid, 1736, 1753); a poem against Free-masonry (Madrid, 1752); "Introdución a la historia natural de España" (Madrid, 1754; German tr., Halle, 1773; Italian tr. of a part printed under his direction at Rome with the title "La gigantologia española"; second volume, on insects, never printed); "History of the Seraphic order" (Rome, 1756).
References
- Back to citation Burkhardt, Lotte (2022). Eine Enzyklopädie zu eponymischen Pflanzennamen [Encyclopedia of eponymic plant names] (pdf) (in German). Berlin: Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin. doi:10.3372/epolist2022. ISBN 978-3-946292-41-8. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
- Back to citation Dizionario biografico universale, Volume 5, by Felice Scifoni, Publisher Davide Passagli, Florence (1849); page 377.
- Back to citation Eusebio Gómez Platero, O.F.M., Catálogo biográfico de los Religiosos Franciscanos de la Provincia de San Gregorio Magno de Filipinas desde 1577 en que llegaron los primeros a Manila hasta los de nuestros días (Manila: Colegio de Santo Tomás, 1880), 404-05; Félix de Huerta, O.F.M., Estado geográfico, estadístico, histórico-religioso, de la santa y apostólica Provincia de San Gregorio Magno, de religiosos Menores descalzos de la regular y más estrecha Observancia de N. S. P. S. Francisco en las islas Filipinas (Binondo: M. Sánchez, 1865 (2d ed.), 537-38.
- Back to citation Lorenzo Pérez, O.F.M., “Fr. José Torrubia, Procurador de la Provincia de San Gregorio de Filipinas,” Archivo Ibero-Americano, 36:111 (July–September 1933), 321-64. Odilo Gómez Parente, O.F.M., in the introduction to José Torrubia, O.F.M., Crónica de la Provincia Franciscana de Santa Cruz de la Española y Caracas (Caracas: Academia Nacional de la Historia, 1972), which in turn is a section of Torrubia’s portion (v. 9) of the Crónica General de la Orden Franciscana.
- Back to citation The essay “What We Know about the Life of P. José Torrubia, O.F.M., lists more than thirty-seven published and unpublished items to Torrubia’s credit as a writer. https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxkYmNyZXNlYXJjaGluc3RpdHV0ZXxneDo3YzdjMzZjMjgyNzM4N2Vh, 4-11.
- Back to citation "Torrubia Vell. | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
- Back to citation Boudier JLÉ. (1885). "Note sur un nouveau genre et quelques nouvelles espèces des Pyrenomycètes". Revue Mycologique Toulouse (in French). 7: 224–7.