The Notion of Recogimiento Interior in the Thought of Francisco de Osuna : the Foundation of Spanish Mysticism

Recogimiento interior, or inner recollection, is a form of mental prayer introduced to Spain in the 16th century mainly by Franciscan spiritual authors. Francisco de Osuna (c.1492-1540) is one of its most eminent advocates. His influence can be traced in many important authors in the Spanish mystical tradition such as Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, and even in its last representative, Miguel de Molinos, whose condemnation as the heresiarch of Quietism (1685) marked the end of the production of Spanish mystical thought. We can describe the practice and teaching of recogimiento interior as forming the soil on which Spanish mysticism flourished. In the first part of this article, I analyze Osuna’s understanding of recogimiento interior, which is richly developed in his Tercer Abecedario Espiritual. In a broad sense, the term refers to Christian spiritual life in general. However, in its more narrow definition it refers to a special form of mental prayer without any physical or vocal expression, culminating in the profound interiorization of the soul by which the soul goes into the interior of God himself and at the same time God comes into the interior of the soul itself./ In the second part, I briefly compare Osuna’s notion of interiorization with analogous ideas found in the medieval mysticism of Bonaventura and the hesychasm of the Eastern Church in order to stress the “early modern” nature of the interiority that the recogimiento of Osuna and subsequent Spanish authors aimed to attain.論文/Article