Jaime Balmes

Spain's Jaime Luciano Balmes y Urpiá was a philosopher, theologian, Catholic defender, sociologist, and political writer who lived from August 28, 1810, to July 9, 1848. Balmes was an original philosopher who did not follow any particular school or line. He knew about the ideas of Saint Thomas Aquinas and was known as the Prince of Modern Apologetics by Pope Pius XII. He was born in Vic, Spain, in the Catalonia region. On the same day he was born, Balmes was baptized in the church of that city with the name Jaime Luciano Antonio. He passed away in the same place. Starting in 1817, Balmes went to the college in Vic to study. He took three years of Latin grammar, three years of rhetoric, and starting in 1822, three years of philosophy. In Solsona in 1825, the Bishop of that city, Manuel Benito Tabernero, gave him the tonsure. Balmes also took courses in theology at Vic Seminary from 1825 to 1826. It was free for him to take four courses in theology at the University of Cervera's College of San Carlos. Because the University of Cervera had to close in 1830, Balmes continued to study on his own in Vic for two years. He got his degree in religion on June 8, 1833.