Ignacio Ellacuría, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Ignacio Ellacuría

Spanish philosopher, Jesuit priest, assassinated martyr in El Salvador

Date of Birth: 09-Nov-1930

Place of Birth: Portugalete, Basque Country, Spain

Date of Death: 16-Nov-1989

Profession: missionary, Catholic priest, theologian, university teacher, philosopher, Jesuit

Nationality: Spain, El Salvador

Zodiac Sign: Scorpio


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About Ignacio Ellacuría

  • Ignacio Ellacuría (Portugalete, Biscay, Spain, November 9, 1930 – San Salvador, November 16, 1989) was a Spanish Jesuit priest, philosopher, and theologian who did important work as a professor and rector at the Universidad Centroamericana "José Simeón Cañas" (UCA), a Jesuit university in El Salvador founded in 1965.
  • He and several other Jesuits and two others were assassinated by Salvadoran soldiers in the closing years of the Salvadoran Civil War.
  • His work was defining for the shape UCA took in its first years of existence and the years to come.
  • Ellacuría was also responsible for the development of formation programs for priests in the Jesuit Central American province. Ellacuría's academic work was an important contribution to "Liberation Philosophy".
  • This school of philosophy stems from the work of Augusto Salazar Bondy (1925–1974) and Leopoldo Zea (1912–2004).
  • It focuses on liberating the oppressed in order "to reach the fullness of humanity".
  • Ellacuría was also a strong supporter and contributor to Liberation Theology. The political implications of Ellacuría's commitment to his ideas met strong opposition from the conservative religious and political forces in El Salvador.
  • This opposition led to Ellacuría's murder by the Salvadoran army in 1989 at his residence in UCA along with five other fellow Jesuit priests and two employees.
  • Their murder marked a turning point in the Salvadoran civil war (see History of El Salvador).
  • On the one hand, it increased international pressures on the Salvadoran government to sign peace agreements with the guerrilla organisation FMLN.
  • On the other, it helped make Ellacuría's ideas (until then known only in Latin America and Spain) become known worldwide. There are different types of Latin American liberation philosophy.
  • Ellacuría's thought represents one of the currents within this philosophical tradition.Ellacuría joined the Jesuits in 1947 and was commissioned to the Central American republic of El Salvador in 1948.
  • He lived and worked there for much of his life until his bloody assassination in 1989.
  • In 1958, Ellacuría studied theology with Vatican II theologian Karl Rahner in Innsbruck, Austria.
  • He also lived in Ecuador and Spain.

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