Gonzalo García de Santa María
Gonzalo García de Santa María · Historical & Religious Figures
Born a Jew, baptized at eleven beside his father Pablo de Santa María — canon lawyer, papal auditor and bishop of three Castilian sees
1379, Burgos, Castille (Espagne) — 1448, Castille (Espagne)
Burgos, Avignon, Astorga, Plasencia, Sigüenza
Gonzalo García de Santa María is recognized among Jewish contributors to Historical & Religious Figures — Born a Jew, baptized at eleven beside his father Pablo de Santa María — canon lawyer, papal auditor and bishop of three Castilian sees
Origins and early life
Gonzalo García de Santa María was born a Jew in Burgos in 1379, the son of Solomon ha-Levi, the rabbi of the city who, on 21 July 1390, was baptized with his sons as Pablo de Santa María and went on to become bishop of Burgos and chancellor of Castile; Gonzalo was about eleven that day, and this fiche records his entry into this directory as the Jewish Encyclopedia records his baptism — a Jewish child who left Judaism with his father, and whom the persecutors of the next century, with their statutes of blood, never allowed to forget it. He studied canon law and rose in the Church as the son of a bishop could.
Work and career
He was auditor of the Rota, the papal tribunal, at Avignon under Benedict XIII, the pope to whom his father was attached, one of the Castilian envoys to the Council of Constance that ended the Great Schism, and successively bishop of Astorga from 1414, of Plasencia from 1423 and of Sigüenza from 1446. He was a councillor of John II of Castile and a jurist whose opinions the crown sought, and a member of the most remarkable converso family of the fifteenth century — the Santa María, whose brother Alonso de Cartagena, bishop of Burgos and defender of the conversos, and whose descendants filled the Castilian church and chancery for a hundred years.
Later years
He died in 1448; his life is less known than his brother's, and this fiche makes no claim beyond what the sources hold, but the documentation of his origin — baptism, date and father — is as complete as any in medieval Spain.
Verify and go deeper with these external references.
Source: https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6803-gonzalo-garcia-de-santa-maria
This page is published in seven languages from an English source. The translations are reviewed, but a mistake can still slip through. If you spot one on this profile — a wrong word, a lost date, a sentence that says something the English does not — please tell us.
Born a Jew, baptized at eleven beside his father Pablo de Santa María — canon lawyer, papal auditor and bishop of three Castilian sees
Source: https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6803-gonzalo-garcia-de-santa-maria
