Obregon, Bernard

Obregon, Bernard the rounder of the Spanish order of Minorite hospital brethren, was born at Las Huelgasj near Burgos, May 20,1540. He was at first a soldier, but having been converted, he devoted himself to the, care of the poor in the court hospital of Madrid. He soon found followers, and formed a congregation, which was approved by Decio Caraffa, nuncio to Spain in 1569. Several cities demanded members of the new order for their hospitals, and in 1587 they were entrusted with the administration of the general hospital of Madrid. Two years later cardinal Caspar Quiroga, archbishop of Toledo, received their solemn vows, and subjected them to the rules and habit of the third order of St. Francis. SEE MINORITES. In 1592 Obregon went to Lisbon, where he reformed the numerous abuses existing in the administration of the hospitals of that city, and drew up a set of rules for the guidance of his congregation, which was finally completed in -1594. Upon his return to Madrid he nursed king Philip II through his last illness, in Sept., 1598, and afterwards resumed the directorship of the general hospital. He died at Madrid August 6, 1599. Obregon wrote Instruccion de enfermos, y verdadera practica como se hace de aplicar los remedios que ensenan los medicos (Madrid, 1607, 8vo). The Spaniards call the members of the order Obregons. See Herrera Maldonado, Vida de Bernardino de Obregon; Dom de. Gubernatis, Orbis seraphicus, vol. ii; Helvot, Hist. des ordres monastiques, 7:321326.