Faustino Arévalo was a Spanish Jesuit hymn

Hymn

A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...

ographer and patrologist.

He entered the Society of Jesus

Society of Jesus

The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...

 in 1761, but was deported to Italy on the occasion of the deportation of the Jesuits from Spain (1767). There he won the esteem and confidence of Cardinal Lorenzana

Francisco Antonio de Lorenzana

Francisco Antonio de Lorenzana y Butron was a Catholic Cardinal.After the completion of his studies at the Jesuit College of his native city, he entered the ecclesiastical state and was appointed, at an early date, to a canonry in Toledo. In 1765 he was named Bishop of Plasencia...

, who proved a patron for the young Spanish Jesuit, bore the expenses of his academic work, and made him his executor.

Arévalo held various offices of trust in Rome, among them that of "pontifical hymnographer". He was made theologian of the Penitenzieria in 1809, in succession to Alfonso Muzzarelli

Alfonso Muzzarelli

Alfonso Muzzarelli was an Italian Jesuit theologian and scholar.-Life:He entered the Jesuit novitiate on 20 October 1768, and taught grammar at Bologna and Imola...

. In 1815 he returned to Spain, recalled by King Ferdinand, entered the restored Society, and became provincial of Castile

Castile (historical region)

A former kingdom, Castile gradually merged with its neighbours to become the Crown of Castile and later the Kingdom of Spain when united with the Crown of Aragon and the Kingdom of Navarre...

 (1820). Arévalo stands in the front rank of Spanish patristic scholars.

His principal works are:

• Hymnodia Hispanica (Rome, 1786), a restoration of ancient Spanish hymns to their original metrical, musical, and grammatical perfection. This work was much esteemed by Cardinal Mai and Dom Guéranger. Among the dissertations that accompany the main work is a curious one on the breviary of Cardinal Quignonez
  Francis Quiñones
  Francisco de Quiñones was a Spanish cardinal who was responsible for some reforms in the church.-Biography:...
  
  .
• Prudentii
  Prudentius
  Aurelius Prudentius Clemens was a Roman Christian poet, born in the Roman province of Tarraconensis in 348. He probably died in Spain, as well, some time after 405, possibly around 413...
  
   Carmina (Rome, 1788-89, 2 Vol., quarto).
• Dracontii
  Blossius Aemilius Dracontius
  Blossius Aemilius Dracontius c. 455 – c. 505) of Carthage, Christian poet, flourished in the latter part of the 5th century. He belonged to a family of land proprietors, and practiced as an advocate in his native place...
  
   Carmina (Rome, 1791), the poems of a fifth-century Christian of Roman Africa.
• Juvenci
  Juvencus
  Gaius Vettius Aquilinus Juvencus, known as Juvencus or Juvenk, was a Roman Spanish Christian and composer of Latin poetry in the 4th century.-Life:...
  
   Historiae Evangelicae Libri IV (Rome, 1794).
• Caelii Sedulii
  Coelius Sedulius
  Coelius Sedulius, was a Christian poet of the first half of the 5th century. He is termed a presbyter by Isidore of Seville and in the Gelasian decree....
  
   Opera Omnia (Rome, 1813).
• S. Isidori Hispaniensis
  Isidore of Seville
  Saint Isidore of Seville served as Archbishop of Seville for more than three decades and is considered, as the historian Montalembert put it in an oft-quoted phrase, "le dernier savant du monde ancien"...
  
   Opera Omnia (Rome, 1813).
• Missale Gothicum (Rome, 1804).