Francesco Scupoli was born about 1530 at Otranto in southern Italy. When he was about forty he joined the Theatines, a congregation of reforming priests, taking the name Lorenzo, and he was ordained priest in 1577. In 1581 he was accused of a grave fault whose nature has never been made clear; he was barred from exercising the priesthood and imprisoned for a time, and he accepted the sentence without defending himself.
He spent the rest of his life as a humble member of Theatine houses. In 1589 The Spiritual Combat appeared at Venice without his name, ascribed only to a servant of God, and it was reprinted again and again. In April 1610 he was allowed to exercise the priesthood again, and in the same year an edition first bore his name. He died at Naples on 26 November 1610.
Lorenzo Scupoli in the library (2 works)
- Combate espiritual — 1589; edición de 1868 · en español
El manual de lucha espiritual: desconfianza de sí, confianza en Dios, el buen uso de las facultades y la oración. - Lorenzo Scupoli: The Spiritual Combat — 1589; edition 1876
The Theatine's manual of spiritual warfare — distrust of self, trust in God, the use of the faculties and prayer — Francis de Sales's daily companion.