Alonso was born at Oropesa (Toledo), Spain, on 17 October 1500. Attracted to Augustinian religious life by the words and example of St. Thomas of Villanova, Alonso entered the novitiate at the age of twenty-two, together with his brother Francis, on 8 June 1522.
For thirty years Alonso was engaged in the apostolate of teaching and preaching. Four times he was appointed prior of various monasteries and in 1548 obtained permission to fulfill his long felt desire to go to the missions in Mexico. By the time he reached the Canary Islands, however, a severe case of arthritis forces his return home. In the book of his Confessions, Alonso records that in the year 1542, while residing in the monastery of Seville, he beheld in a dream the Mother of God "who spoke to me but one word, and that was 'Write.'" Ever after Alonso followed this instruction, producing books on a variety of subjects up until his ninetieth year.
In 1551 he was appointed prior in the royal city of Valladolid and shortly thereafter named court preacher and chaplain to the royal family. Ten years later King Philip II transferred his court to Madrid and Blessed Alonso was constrained to accompany him. He occupied a cell in the friary of San Felipe el Real, where his life was one of simplicity and humility in contrast to the official functions of the court in which he necessarily participated. In the midst of his many duties in Madrid he was also responsible for the foundation of three convents of Augustinian contemplative nuns and the College of the Incarnation for the education of candidates to the Order.
On 19 September 1591, after an illness of several weeks duration, Alonso died at the age of ninety, mourned by young and old, wealthy and poor, the humble and the great.
Taken from Rotelle, John, Book of Augustinian Saints, Augustinian Press 2000
Posted by Carlos J. Medina
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