Background
was born in 1504 in the Andalucian city of Granada, where he was baptized Luis Sarría.Sarria. The son of a poverty-stricken Galician washerwoman, he so impressed a local noble, the Count of Tendilla, with his talent for oratory and for study, that the count sponsored his education.
In 1525 he became a Dominican and adopted the monastic name of Fray Luis de Granada. After a period of further study in his order's monastery in Valladolid, Fray Luis went to Córdoba,Cordoba, where he knew and admired Juan de Ávila,Avila, one of Santa Teresa's mentors. His reputation as a sermonist and stirring orator by this time was widely spread, and in 1557 he was named provincial of his order in Portugal. He remained in that country most of the time until his death in Lisbon, Dec. 31, 1588.