Pope signs decree making José Gregorio Hernández, 'doctor of the poor,' Venezuela's first saint
A man revered by millions as the 'doctor of the poor' will be the first saint from Venezuela after Pope Francis approved a decree Tuesday.
A date for the canonization of Dr. José Gregorio Hernández, who died in 1919, has not been set. The Vatican in a statement said Francis also decided to convene a formal meeting of cardinals to set the dates for future canonizations, but it was not immediately scheduled.
'This historic event, long awaited by the Venezuelan people, is a recognition of the exemplary life and heroic virtues of a man who dedicated his existence to alleviating human suffering and transmitting a message of love and hope,' the Archdiocese of Caracas said in a statement. 'The Catholic Church recognizes his life of holiness, accompanied by a universal devotion, which today allows him to be elevated to the altar.'
Hernández was beatified in April 2021 after the church certified a miracle in the case of a girl who completely recovered after being shot in the head in 2017.
Hernández, born on Oct. 26, 1864, in the western Venezuela town of Isnotu, never married and graduated as a doctor in Caracas, Venezuela's capital, in 1888. He was convinced that science was one of the main ways to get the South American country out of misery and went on to establish two research institutions as well as teach several classes at the Central University of Venezuela, the nation's oldest and largest.
He traveled to Europe to study and then to become a Catholic monk, but his fragile health was affected by Italy's cold and humid weather. He returned to Venezuela to recover and stayed permanently.
On June 29, 1919, Hernández was hit by a car while crossing a street shortly after picking up medicine at a pharmacy to take to an impoverished woman. His death was caused when his head hit the edge of a sidewalk. An estimated 20,000 people participated in his funeral procession, about a quarter of the population of Caracas at the time.
In 1986, the Vatican declared Hernández 'venerable,' which means that he led an exemplary Christian life. But to achieve sanctity, teams of doctors, theologians and cardinals must approve miracles attributed to him.
When Pope John Paul II, now a saint, visited Venezuela in 1996, he received a petition signed by 5 million people — at the time, almost one in four Venezuelans — asking him to declare Hernández a saint.
____
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ITV News
4 days ago
- ITV News
Tanks a lot: the shipping disaster providing months of meals for a Gorleston foodbank
Natalie Gray drops into food bank in Gorleston A stricken oil tanker, which was involved in a crash with a cargo ship in the North Sea, has come to the aid of a community food bank and kitchen. The Stena Immaculate was struck by the Portuguese-owned Solong off the coast of East Yorkshire in March, causing a massive fire and leaving one sailor missing, presumed dead. The Stena was later towed into the port of Great Yarmouth in April for repairs. Volunteers from the St Mary Magdalene Church food bank in Gorleston, Norfolk, say they were invited to the stricken tanker to collect frozen meat. Eight freezers packed with meat were salvaged, thought to be worth thousands of pounds. The Reverend Matthew Price, from St Mary Magdalene Church, said, 'It doesn't happen every day, it's extraordinary. It's going to make a massive difference to what happens here. "It was clearly a tragic accident, but for something good to come of that is really beautiful. "The Christian faith is all about good coming out of bad, resurrection, new life, and there's something of that I think in what we see here. "A terrible accident out in the sea has brought good to our community here in Gorleston." Chef Lottie Eaton at St Mary Magdalene Church said he couldn't believe it. "I got very excited because I'm very much a meat-eater," he said. "We went to the ship and literally filled the van as full as we could. There was just so much variety and range, it's not something we've been given before. "It's something good coming from something bad." The church believes the donation will keep their Tuesday lunch club going for several months.
Daily Mirror
5 days ago
- Daily Mirror
Woman who 'died' walked through 'hell' and 'met God in heaven'
Kathy McDaniel 'had no idea she was dead' during the whole ordeal A woman claimed that she journeyed through hell to meet God in heaven after being put into a three-week coma. Kathy McDaniel, speaking on the DEAD Talks Podcast, said that she still recalls everything that happened so clearly that it cannot have been down to her imagination. The mother was put into a medically induced coma after facing lung failure caused by an aggressive strain of flu back in 1999, which saw her fighting for her life. Upon recovery, she alleges to have found herself in a place she could only describe as hell. Even decades later, she vividly remembers the experience and shares her story to validate others who have had near-death experiences. Speaking on the podcast, she insisted her memory of the ordeal was still "as crisp as could be", adding: "To me, it proves it happened not in my brain but in my soul - and you can't turn the soul off." Raised Catholic, Kathy spent her childhood attending Catholic schools and Sunday church services. However, life struggles and traumas, including divorce and the loss of a baby, led her to question her faith in God. She asked: "I'm a nice person, why does this stuff keep happening to me?" She caught a severe strain of flu after caring for a friend who was ill in Seattle, reports the Express US. With alarming symptoms, she said: "I was coughing up blood... I could feel my life force draining out through my feet." A doctor diagnosed Kathy with ARDS - known fully as acute respiratory distress syndrome - a life-threatening illness that occurs when your lungs are severely compromised. Kathy, who was in her fifties at the time, was put into a drug-induced coma and given a mere 38% chance of survival. She had an experience that she says 'haunts her to this day' that started by 'waking up' in a "totally dark place". She described witnessing an eerie "reddish glow" which she initially mistook for a sunrise. However, she claimed this soon developed into a "pretty but weird" swirling fog that started getting "a little too warm" and began to give off a "really bad" smell. She said: "Then this voice just boomed out, scared me half to death and it said 'do you know where you are'. I'm thinking, and the only thing I can come up with is hell. The voice did this maniacal laugh and I just ran into the darkness. I didn't care if I hit a wall, fell in a ditch, that thing was going to get me so I kept running." Things then took a bizarre turn as Kathy found herself being transported to various strange places. She says these included a ruined city with collapsing buildings and a warzone before encountering what she describes as "a demon". She said the 'demon' offered her a "way out" if she completed a simple gardening task. Kathy claimed she "had no better offers" when she was handed "children's scissors" and was told to cut down seven-foot-tall blackberry bushes that would keep growing back. She then spent a considerable amount of time walking along a dirt road, with nothing around but the occasional pile of rocks. All the while, Kathy claimed she had "no idea [she] was dead" and mentioned in the podcast that she came across some of her living relatives during the journey she took. Kathy told the podcast host that she never experienced a flatline, indicating no physical death occurred. However, she said: "It's very common, and is accepted now in the groups that I belong to, that if you're in a coma, your consciousness can wander off." She said: "I started off in hell but ended up in the presence of God". During her experience, Kathy claims to have found "an architect's book" with a plan. She continued: "It was halfway open and I thought they were telling me something. I remember saying, 'that's going to be too hard' and then I saw my friend who had died the month before." She claimed that he had reversed in age from 53 to 35 and looked nothing like he did on his deathbed. Kathy said: "If he's dead, and I'm standing next to him, I must be dead too." Her friend informed her she had "too much left to do" and it wasn't long afterwards that she was "welcomed back to Earth". Kathy said that people who hear her story often deny it, believing that they "don't want it to happen to them". An astounding 5 to 10% of the general population are estimated to have memories of a near-death experience, claims Scientific American. Lots do report having interactions with God and getting a glimpse of the afterlife.
Reuters
5 days ago
- Reuters
Pope Leo, in first month, makes a break in style from Francis
VATICAN CITY, June 4 (Reuters) - In his first month, Pope Leo has taken a very different approach to his predecessor Francis. Leo, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost, has led some two dozen public events since he was elected as the first U.S. pope on May 8 but not made notable appointments, nor announced plans for foreign trips, nor said where he will live at the Vatican. It's a stark contrast to when Francis, originally from Argentina, was selected as the first pope from the Americas in March 2013. Within a month, Francis had announced he would be the first pontiff in more than a century to live outside the Vatican's apostolic palace, appointed his successor as Archbishop of Buenos Aires and created a new formal advisory group of senior Catholic cardinals. Two of Leo's long-time associates told Reuters they expect the 69-year-old Pope to take a deliberative approach to the challenges facing the Catholic Church and may require months before making major decisions. "Leo is taking his time," Rev. Mark Francis, a friend of the new pontiff since the 1970s, told Reuters. "While he is going to continue in the path indicated by Pope Francis, his disposition is very different." Leo was first appointed a bishop by Francis in 2015 and then chosen by the late pope to take up a senior Vatican role two years ago. He has frequently praised his predecessor in his first weeks. He has also repeated some of Francis' main themes, and has echoed the Argentine pontiff's emotional appeals for an end to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. But the two men have different temperaments, according to Rev. Francis, who attended seminary with Leo in Chicago and later knew him when they both lived in Rome in the 2000s. "Leo is much more focused and methodical and not inclined to hasty decisions," he said. Among the challenges facing the American pope is the Vatican's 83-million-euro ($95 million) budget shortfall, which Reuters reported in February had stirred contention among senior cardinals under his predecessor. Other looming issues facing the 1.4 billion-member Church include declining adherence to the faith in Europe, ongoing revelations of clerical sexual abuse, and doctrinal debates over matters such as inclusion of LGBT Catholics and the possibility of women's ordination. Francis, who sought to modernise the Church, did not formally change many doctrines but garnered criticism from conservative cardinals by opening the door to communion for divorcees and blessings for same-sex couples. Rev. Anthony Pizzo, who has known Leo since 1974 when they attended Villanova University outside Philadelphia together, said the pope is someone who listens carefully and seeks to hear many viewpoints before making decisions. "This is going to be his modus operandi," said Pizzo, who leads the Midwest U.S. province of the Augustinian religious order, to which Leo also belongs. "When you first come into leadership, listen well, get to know your constituency … to make a well-informed decision," Pizzo added, describing the pope's thought process. Francis and Leo came to the papacy at different ages and with different career backgrounds. Francis, elected at age 76, had been a cardinal for 12 years before ascending to the papacy. He had earlier been a leading contender in the 2005 conclave that elected his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. Leo, seven years younger when he donned the white papal cassock, is a relative unknown on the world stage who only became a cardinal and Vatican official two years ago. He spent most of his prior career as a missionary in Peru. Early in his tenure, Francis told journalists that, due to his age, he expected to have a brief papacy of only a few years. Leo, the youngest pontiff since John Paul II was elected at age 58 in 1978, can perhaps expect a papacy of ten or more years. Among the challenges facing the new pope is a Vatican budget shortfall estimated at 83 million euros, two knowledgeable sources told Reuters. The city-state also has a much larger gap in its pension fund, said to total some 631 million euros by the Vatican's finance czar in 2022 but estimated by several insiders to have since ballooned significantly. In his first weeks, Leo has not addressed the budget issues and has made only a few new appointments to Vatican roles. But he has held formal one-on-one meetings with many senior Vatican officials, which Pizzo suggested the pope could be using to try to learn quickly. Rev. Jorge Martinez Vizueta, who knew Leo in Peru, said he is someone who pays close attention to what people tell him. "He listens a lot, even with a certain shyness," said Martinez, an Augustinian at a monastery where Leo previously was a spiritual advisor. Although Leo has not announced where he will live, more than three informed sources said he is expected to move into the official papal apartments in the Vatican's apostolic palace overlooking St. Peter's Square. Francis shunned the palace in favour of a Vatican hotel. One senior source, who asked not to be identified, said the papal apartments, which have not been lived in since 2013, will require at least 2 to 3 months of renovations. While Francis made some big decisions quickly in his first month, he also took time on other issues. He did not make his first trip abroad until late July 2013, four months into his papacy. Leo's first foreign trip is likely to be to Turkey, to celebrate the 1,700th anniversary of an early Church council with Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Vatican has not announced the trip, but it was previously planned for Francis. Bartholomew told an Italian television station that he and Leo discussed the possibility of the new pope travelling to Turkey in late November. Francis, who often spoke off the cuff, was known for giving freewheeling news conferences on flights home from his trips abroad and frequently responded to queries with an unexpected quip. Asked during his first flight home about a Vatican official said to be gay, Francis famously responded: "If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge him?" Rev. Francis said Leo, who in his first month has largely read from prepared texts, is likely to be more careful with his responses during news conferences. "He won't be shooting from the hip like Francis did while speaking with journalists," said the priest. ($1 = 0.8760 euros)
