Professor Adeva was born in 1929, in Castromonte, a small town in the province of Valladolid, belonging to the diocese of Palencia, where he began his priestly studies at seminar programs of study . Since he stood out for his intellectual gifts and his hard work, his bishop wanted him to study the last years of theology at Comillas, and later sent him to Rome where he specialized in Moral Theology. On his return from Rome, he was put in charge of the care of the seminar Menor de Lebanza (Palencia), at the same time that he taught at the seminar Mayor of the diocese.

In 1967 he moved to Pamplona to join the academic staff of what, two years later, would become the School of Theology at the University of Navarra. His teaching of Moral Theology and Pastoral Theology was vibrant, unafraid to address the most current issues with an open and clear spirit.

Professor Adeva was a brilliant Latinist, and developed his skill both in the teaching and in publications. Until his retirement, he continued to prepare every year materials for the teaching of Latin. He edited, together with Javier Vergara, the Tratado sobre la training de los hijos de los nobles, (BAC-UNED 2011), a Spanish edition of the De eruditione filiorum nobilium, a work by Vicente de Beauvais, of 1245. He also collaborated intensely in the work of the important critical edition of the Roman Catechism piloted by Professor Pedro Rodríguez, and in the critical edition of classic works of the Golden Age (especially autos sacramentales by Calderón de la Barca) and the late Middle Ages. Among his best known works are Juan de Torquemada and his "Tractatus contra principales errores perfidi Machometi et turcorum sive saracenorum" (1459); "Regla cristiana breve" by Juan de Torquemada (1459); "Regla cristiana breve" by Juan de Torquemada (1459)Juan de Zumárraga's "Regla cristiana breve" ( 1459); "Regla cristiana breve" by Juan de Zumárraga; The master Alejo Venegas de Busto, his life and his worksetc.

D. Ildefonso was canon Penitentiary of the Cathedral of Pamplona since 1971. He was the last priest to obtain the canonry of Penitentiary by civil service examination, after some brilliant exercises that in those years were especially demanding. This position, the one with the greatest responsibility in the Diocese of Pamplona in the moral field, he exercised it until months before his departure to heaven.

His character of Spanish was the hallmark of his classes, much awaited and appreciated by the students because he knew how to expose even the most thorny issues with clarity and, at the same time, with naturalness. He never shied away from arduous subjects, aware that many of his students were to become priests and directors of souls; but he had, at the same time, the mastery of sprinkling his explanations with incisive and humorous anecdotes that reaffirmed the theoretical teaching .

Ildefonso Adeva has been a faithful friend who leaves a deep hole among those of us who have treated him: he praised with humor the coexistence with his sister Conchita, without whom, he used to say, he would have been a disaster of a person. He was a great conversationalist, largely because of his vast culture and although he was always incisive in his conversations, he was incapable of hurting anyone and knew how to rectify, leaving above all his friendship and cordiality.

May the Lord welcome you into his Kingdom of peace, together with the Blessed Virgin, whose feast of the Assumption you were able to celebrate in Heaven.