Pedro Ponce de León, First Teacher of the Deaf

PEDRO PONCE DE LEN, FIRST TEACHER OF THE DEAF Teresa Labartade Chaves andJorge L. Soler The first known school for the deaf was in the Monastery of San Salvador de Ofia, located in a deep and isolated valley in the mountains of North Central Spain, in the province of Burgos. This valley lies north of the barren Mesa de Ofia, which is over four thousand feet high. It is a recessed, circular valley almost completely surrounded by high mountains except to the west. The slopes are covered with oak trees and box shrubs and a bountiful spring flows through it and into the Oca River, which wends its way between the mountains to the Ebro River about three miles away. isolation that made it appropriate for a monastery. It provided not only peaceful surroundings apt for meditation, but also it was less accessible to the attacks of the Moors. This last consideration was probably the determining factor in the choice of the site if one considers that the monastery was founded at the beginning of the eleventh century, not many years after the successful campaigns of Almansur, under whose command the Moslem army had laid waste dozens of monasteries in Spain. From the charter of the monastery, dated in 1010, it is known that Don Sancho Garcia, Count of Castile, founded it for his young daughter Tigridia, who later became its abbess and was canonized at her death. This document lists also an almost incredible number of towns, churches, estates and other monasteries with which Don Sancho endowed his foundation. Large portions of the present provinces of Burgos and Santander were placed under the jurisdiction of the Monastery of San Salvador de Ofia. The wealth of the monastery grew with the centuries, as more and more kings and noblemen donated territories and extended privileges to it. Aside from its material wealth, its library housed a very rich collection of classical and medieval manuscripts and was a center of learning. In the fifteenth century, the reign of the Catholic monarchs, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, which brought about decisive Chaves and Soler changes in Spain, also altered life in the Monastery of Ofia. The monastery lost much of its autonomy and some privileges as it was brought under the control of the Spanish Benedictine Congregation whose centralizing policy was favored by Isabella and Ferdinand. This measure gave rise to an increased exchange with other Benedictine monasteries and resulted in the transfer of Fray Pedro Ponce from a monastery at Sahagfin, Le6n, to the Monastery of Ofia. Although he was a member of an illustrious Spanish family, not very much is known of Pedro Ponce de Le6n.' He was born in the town of Sahagfin, province of Le6n, and took his monastic vows in the Benedictine monastery of his home town on November 3rd, 1526. A contemporary describes him as a reserved, humble devout man, a keen observer who devoted much time to the study of nature, collecting herbs and investigating their uses. The Monastery of Ofia was, thus, an ideal place for such a person. It was also an ideal place for the Marquis of Berlanga, Juan Ferndndez de Velasco, to keep his two deaf sons out of the sight of society. The Velasco family had been one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in Spain since the thirteenth century. One of its members, Don Bernardino de Velasco, who died in 1517, had been appointed by the Catholic monarchs first Condestable of Castile, i.e., Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. That title became in time a hereditary and honorific one. Don Juan Ferndndez de Velasco, Marquis of Berlanga, whose children were sent to Ofia was the brother of the third Condestable, Don Pedro de Velasco, Duke of Frias and Count of Haro. Don Juan Fernindez de Velasco, who died in 1546, also known as Juan de Velasco and Juan de Tovar, had eight children: 3 Juliana, deaf, a nun in the Convent of Santa Cruz de Medina de Pomar; Iffigo, who inherited the titles of Condestable and Duke of Frfas from his uncle Don Pedro who died without succession in 1557; Francisco, deaf, sent to Ofia...