Rafael Guízar y Valencia

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

In this
Spanish name, the first or paternal surname
is Guízar and the second or maternal family name is Valencia.
Saint Peter's Square by Pope John Paul II
Canonized15 October 2006, Saint Peter's Square by Pope Benedict XVI
Major shrineXalapa Cathedral, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico
Feast6 June[1]

Rafael Guízar y Valencia (16 April 1878 – 6 June 1938)

canonized
Guízar on 15 October 2006.

Life

Rafael Guízar Valencia was born in Cotija in 1878. His parents, Prudencio and Natividad Guízar y Valencia had eleven children. When Rafael was nine years old, he lost his mother. He attended a catholic school where he got in touch with

priesthood
. In 1891 he entered the seminary in Cotija and was ordained in 1901.

In 1905 he became spiritual director of the seminary in Zamora. In 1911, he founded a religious newspaper in Mexico, but soon he got into political

persecution
by the revolutionary movement in Mexico which lasted until his death. Guízar lived several times without a home and hid his priestly work under disguises as a street seller, a musician, and a doctor of homeopathic medicine, which allowed him to administer the sacraments in secrecy. At times he had to leave the country and lived in the South of the United States until 1915. In 1916 he went to Guatemala, in 1919 he cared for victims of the black plague.

In 1919 he was elected

consecrated
in the Cathedral of Saint Christopher in Havana on November 30, 1919. Of the years in which Guízar was in charge of the diocese, he had to spend nine years in exile due to persecution.

In 1920, he participated in relief and recovery efforts for survivors and towns badly affected by an earthquake which struck Veracruz in January. He collaborated with government officials to raise funds, and conducted sermons in the region.[3]

In December 1937, while on a mission in Cordoba, he suffered a heart attack and died on 6 June 1938 in Mexico City. His tomb in the Catholic Cathedral of Xalapa attracts many worshipers who come for intercession.[4]

Veneration

Guízar was beatified by

canonisation
in 2006.

See also

References

  1. ^ "St. Rafael Guizar Valencia - Saints & Angels".
  2. ^ "Newest K of C Saint a Model of Charity". www.kofc.org. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  3. ISBN 978-607-30-2583-6
    .
  4. ^ "Rafael Guízar Valencia (1878-1938) - Biography".
  5. ^ Acta Apostolicae Sedis (PDF). Vol. LXXXVII. 1995. pp. 834ff. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
  6. ^ "Pope Benedict XVI Names 4 to Sainthood". New York Times. 16 October 2006. Retrieved 15 May 2020.

External links

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