Alvarez, Bernadino De

Alvarez, Bernadino de a Spanish philanthropist, founder of the order of St. Hippolytus, was born at Seville in 1514. At the age of fourteen years he went to the. New World to seek his fortune, and enrolled himself in the Mexican army; but, for bad conduct, was sent to the Philippine Islands, from which he escaped and took refuge in Peru. Having amassed wealth, he founded hospitals severally at Mexico in 1567, at Oaxtepe, at Vera Cruz, at Acapulco, anld in other cities of New Spain. These hospitals were occupied by a charitable association of St. Hippolytus, the statutes of which were approved by pope Innocent XII, and printed in Mexico in 1621 and 1718. Alvarez died in 1584, and was eventually canonized. See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v.