L’esercizio penitenziale della Escuela de Christo de Madrid

The founder of the Escuela de Christo of Madrid was the priest of the Congregation of the Oratory of Messina, Giovanni Battista Ferruzza (1602-1658). The initial twelve hermanos carried out their first junta in a small room of the Hospital de los Italianos on 26 February 1653. This article proposes a critical rereading of the XXII Chapters, Explicación, y Apuntamientos contained in the Constituciones written by Don Juan de Palafox y Mendoza (1600-1659), approved by the cardinal, archbishop of Toledo, Don Baltasar Moscoso y Sandoval (1646-1665) on 16 September of the same year. Particular attention was paid to the peculiar meditative and penitential exercises practiced weekly in the Escuela, for the purposes of the desired spiritual reform of each Congregant. In this sense, the archival research activity also made it possible to present an unpublished and rare transcription document of the Exercicio del Jueves de la Ascensión held in the Escuela on 30 May 1658.