Fray Luis de Granada — Louis of Granada in English, Ludovicus Granatensis in the Latin editions that carried him across Europe — was born poor at Granada, entered the Order of Preachers, and became the greatest spiritual writer of Spain’s golden age, spending his last decades in Portugal as confessor and counselor to princes while refusing every honor offered him.
His Book of Prayer and Meditation and Sinner’s Guide formed the interior life of generations — Saint Francis de Sales, Saint Vincent de Paul, and Saint Teresa, who called him a master; Saint Charles Borromeo kept his works at hand.
The Introduction of the Symbol of Faith (1583), the summa of his old age, opens with the theater of creation — the First Part offered here in English for the first time.