Fr. Tirso Alesanco never was an ordinary religious. He was a brilliant professor, sharp debater, friendly person, witty and amusing conversationalist, and had a knack for encapsulating concepts in clear and brief formulas. He was born in 1917 in the very town of San Millan, a few kilometers from the monastery, wherein he would spend not a few years of his life. First, as a student of philosophy, during the the Republican period; then, as professor of the same field; and, finally, from 1992 till his death, as a theoretically retired member of the community. He spent the last years of his life sharing his knowledge with the Augustinian Recollect nuns visiting all the convents in Spain.
Fr. Alesanco had more than ordinary knowledge, passion for literature, sharpness and openness of mind, and charming and witty conversation. In the course of various lustrums he was almost exclusively a professor, to which he devoted all his efforts, with effective results in his students, who still remember the clarity of his exposition.
Augustinian scholar
In 1987 he directed the issue with which the CONFER (a magazine on religious life in Spain) honored the 16th Centenary of the Conversion of Saint Augustine, contributing an essay on the “Augustinian Meaning of Obedience, Poverty and Chastity”. His most substantial contribution was the book Filosofía de San Agustín. Síntesis de su pensamiento, published by Editorial Avgvstinvs in Madrid in 2004. The book, consisting of 511 pages, analyzes in a very personal way the Augustinian thought on man, on God and on the binomial man-God.
He was born in 1917 in the very town of San Millan, a few kilometers from the monastery, wherein he would spend not a few years of his life. The book also stands out for the quality of its prose. In contrast to the abstruse language and coarse literary style of many a philosophical treatise, that of the book is always clear and precise, even brilliant at times. It is not merely a patchwork of random thoughts; Fr. Tirso had read the works of Saint Augustine and had lengthily reflected on them. His writing is fruit of that reflection. It is therefore a very personal work, which is another big plus factor in an age where so much is written about the saint but so often there is lacking a systematic reading of his works, depending more on others’ readings and interpretations. Fr. Tirso’s tome is a systematic and logical opus, which tries to reduce Augustinian philosophy to its essential elements and lines, and from which he then derives consequences and corollaries, giving the book the feeling and girth of comprehensiveness. Also welcome are the quantity and quality of textual citations wherein the non-specialists, as would be the majority of its readers, will find a treasure trove and a guide for their own reflections.