Jan de Witte (bishop)

Most Reverend Jan de Witte
Bishop of Santiago de Cuba
Church	Catholic Church
Diocese	Diocese of Santiago de Cuba
In office	1518–1525
Predecessor	None
Successor	Sebastián de Salamanca
Personal details
Born	6 August 1475 Bruges, County of Flanders
Died	18 September 1540 (age 65) Bruges
Nationality	Flemish

An anonymous 1473 Triptych of Jan de Witte and Maria Hoose, parents of bishop Jan de Witte, on either site of the Virgin Mary

Jan de Witte O.P. (1475–1540), also Joannes Albus in Latin and Juan de Witte Hoos or Juan de Ubite in some Spanish sources, was a Flemish renaissance humanist and Roman Catholic prelate who served as the first Bishop of Cuba (1518–1525).

Biography

Jan de Witte was the son of Maria Hoose and the merchant Jan de Witte, lord of Ruddervoorde, who was mayor of Bruges in 1473. The De Witte family traded with Spain and Jan was sent to Valladolid for training, where he ended up being ordained a priest in the Order of Preachers. In 1506 he was called back to Flanders, probably Mechelen, to be the teacher Spanish and Dutch for the children of Philip I of Castile and Joanna of Castile.

On 15 May 1514, he was appointed during the papacy of Pope Leo X as Titular Bishop of Selymbria near Constantinople and on 11 February 1517 as Bishop of Baracoa on Cuba. On 28 April 1522, during the papacy of Pope Adrian VI, this diocese was renamed and his title was changed to Bishop of Santiago de Cuba. He served in Santiago de Cuba until his resignation on 4 April 1525. He retired to his native city where he lived in a stately palace later known as Hof van Cuba ("Cuba's court"). He died there on 18 September 1540 In his will he established a chair of literature and a chair of theology, named the "Cuba foundation".

External links and additional sources

• Cheney, David M. "Archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba". Catholic-Hierarchy.org. Retrieved June 16, 2018. (for Chronology of Bishops) ^{[self-published]}
• Chow, Gabriel. "Metropolitan Archdiocese of Santiago". GCatholic.org. Retrieved June 16, 2018. (for Chronology of Bishops) ^{[self-published]}