Diego de Estella, the author of the work from which the following pages have been translated, was born a.d. 1524, at Estella, in the Kingdom of Navarre. In due course he assumed the cowl of the Order of S. Francis, as one of the Friars Minor of the Regular Observance, at Salamanca.
He was appointed Royal Preacher, Adviser and Theologian to King Philip II., and became Confessor to Cardinal Granvela.
To his pen we owe, besides several works in Latin, the following written in Spanish: 1. De la vanidad del mundo; 2. Meditaciones del Amor de Dios; 3. La vida y excelencias de san Juan Evangelista.
The first of these works was one of the very few books recommended by Dona Oliva de Sabuco; the second is the subject of the present translation.
Diego died at Salamanca, 1st August, 1578, ætat. fifty-four.
H. W. P., 1898