Álvar García de Santa María (1370 – March 21, 1460) was a Spanish

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

and

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

convert to

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

during the late Middle Ages. He was born in 1370 into a prominent Castilian Jewish family, but converted in 1390 at the time of evangelization of the Jewish community by

St. Vincent Ferrer Vincent Ferrer, OP ( ca-valencia, Sant Vicent Ferrer , es, San Vicente Ferrer, it, San Vincenzo Ferreri, german: Sankt Vinzenz Ferrer, nl, Sint-Vincent Ferrer, french: Saint Vincent Ferrier; 23 January 1350 – 5 April 1419) was a Valencian D ...

. His brother Pablo de Santa María also converted and later became

Bishop of Burgos The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Burgos is one of Spain's Latin Metropolitan sees.
''

Alphonso de Cartagena, another Jewish convert. Álvar later became a senior court historian and chronicler of the reign of King John II of Castile, probably compiling the ''Crónica de Juan II'' (or ''Chronicle of John II''). He has also been put forward as the potential author of the book ''Crónica de don Álvaro de Luna'' written in the 1450s, the authorship of which is in dispute. Álvar died on March 21, 1460, at a great age.

References

* ''This article is based on a translation of an article from the Spanish Wikipedia''
Brief Biography from Biography.com
1370 births 1460 deaths 15th-century Spanish historians Jewish historians 14th-century Castilian Jews Converts to Roman Catholicism from Judaism Spanish Roman Catholics Conversos 15th-century Castilians Date of birth unknown {{Spain-historian-stub