Saint Emmanuel The Good, Martyr: Miguel de Unamuno [graphic graphicname="TIF00039244" orient="portrait" size="A"]

Miguel de Unamuno (y Jugo) was born September 29, 1864, in the port city of Bilbao, located in the Basque region of Spain. When he was six years old, his father died. At sixteen, he enrolled in the University of Madrid, completing his Ph.D. in philosophy by the age of twenty. Unamuno obtained a position as professor of Greek at the University of Salamanca in 1891. At this time, he married a young woman from his home town, with whom he had ten children. In 1901, he was appointed to the prestigious position of rector of the University of Salamanca.

While continuing to teach and serve as rector, Unamuno published numerous stories, poems, and essays. He became associated with the Generation of 1898, a set of writers whose works grapple with questions of Spain's national...