Ángel Riesco Carbajo (9 July 1902 - 2 July 1972) was a

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

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prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Christian clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which means 'carry before', 'be set above or over' or 'pref ...

who served as a

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

in the Pamplona archdiocese and was the founder of the Misioneras Apostólicas de la Caridad. Riesco spent some time in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

as an

emigrant Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

before he returned to his homeland for a

scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholarsh ...

that saw his ecclesial studies spent in

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and

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. He served as a

parish priest A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

following his

ordination Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorization, authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominational ...

and in 1957 in Astorga founded a

religious congregation A religious congregation is a type of religious institute in the Catholic Church. They are legally distinguished from religious orders – the other major type of religious institute – in that members take simple vows, whereas members of religio ...

dedicated to women. Months later he became a bishop but retired a decade later due to poor health that he later died from not long after. Riesco's beatification process launched in 1994 and he became titled as a

Servant of God "Servant of God" is a title used in the Catholic Church to indicate that an individual is on the first step toward possible canonization as a saint. Terminology The expression "servant of God" appears nine times in the Bible, the first five in th ...

. His cause advanced in mid-2019 after

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

named him

Venerable The Venerable (''venerabilis'' in Latin) is a style, a title, or an epithet which is used in some Western Christian churches, or it is a translation of similar terms for clerics in Eastern Orthodoxy and monastics in Buddhism. Christianity Cathol ...

upon confirming that the late bishop had practiced

heroic virtue Heroic virtue is a phrase coined by Augustine of Hippo to describe the virtue of early Christian martyrs and used by the Catholic Church. The Greek pagan term hero described a person with possibly superhuman abilities and great goodness, and "it ...

throughout his life.

Life

Ángel Riesco Carbajo was born on 9 July 1902 in Bercianos de Vidriales in the Zamora department in

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

as the first of three children. In his childhood he

emigrated Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

when he was eight but later returned to his homeland after he turned twelve. He commenced his ecclesial studies under the

Jesuits The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

at the

Comillas Pontifical University Comillas Pontifical University ( es, Universidad Pontificia Comillas) is a private Catholic higher education institution run by the Spanish Province of the Society of Jesus in Madrid Spain. The university is involved in a number of academic exch ...

and also in

after he had received a

. Riesco received his

to the priesthood in Astorga on 25 July 1926 from the diocesan bishop Antonio Senso Lázaro and following this celebrated his first

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

on 22 August in his hometown parish. He first started as a

coadjutor The term coadjutor (or coadiutor, literally "co-assister" in Latin) is a title qualifier indicating that the holder shares the office with another person, with powers equal to the other in all but formal order of precedence. These include: * Coadj ...

for the San Salvador parish in

La Bañeza La Bañeza () is a municipality located in the province of León, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2010 census (INE), the municipality had a population of 11,050 inhabitants. It is the capital of the region of Tierra de La Bañeza. Zo ...

where he founded a small

Catholic Action Catholic Action is the name of groups of lay Catholics who advocate for increased Catholic influence on society. They were especially active in the nineteenth century in historically Catholic countries under anti-clerical regimes such as Spain, Ita ...

group since he prioritized working with them as an apostolic movement. In 1932 he founded the

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

''El Adelanto Bañezano''. He was considered a good

catechist Catechesis (; from Greek: , "instruction by word of mouth", generally "instruction") is basic Christian religious education of children and adults, often from a catechism book. It started as education of converts to Christianity, but as the ...

that cared for the poor and tended to the sick and who also had a profound devotion to both the

Mother of God ''Theotokos'' (Greek: ) is a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially in Eastern Christianity. The usual Latin translations are ''Dei Genitrix'' or ''Deipara'' (approximately "parent (fem.) of God"). Familiar English translations are " ...

and

Saint Joseph Joseph (; el, Ἰωσήφ, translit=Ioséph) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who, according to the canonical Gospels, was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. The Gospels also name some brothers of ...

. This helped characterize his pastoral career since he made these the focus for his mission as a priest. He also collaborated with Catholic Action and other apostolic movements that helped to promote the faith. In 1957 he was appointed as the

vicar general A vicar general (previously, archdeacon) is the principal deputy of the bishop of a diocese for the exercise of administrative authority and possesses the title of local ordinary. As vicar of the bishop, the vicar general exercises the bishop's ...

for the Astorga diocese where - also in 1957 - he founded the Misioneras Apostólicas de la Caridad. This came after he made it a focus for his time in Astorga to focus on helping women who faced disadvantaged economic situations.

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...

named Riesco on 15 February 1958 as the Titular Bishop of Limisa and the Auxiliary Bishop of Pamplona; he received his

episcopal consecration A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or offic ...

on 11 May from

Ildebrando Antoniutti Ildebrando Antoniutti (3 August 1898 – 1 August 1974) was an Italian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as prefect of the Congregation for Religious from 1963 to 1973, and was elevated to the cardinalate by Pope John XXIII in 1 ...

while the co-consecrators were the Bishop of Astorga José Castelltort Subeyre and the

Bishop of Jaca The Diocese of Jaca is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in the northeastern Spanish province of Huesca, part of the autonomous community of Aragón. The diocese is a suffragan in the ecclesiastical provin ...

Ángel Hidalgo Ibáñez. Riesco attended the first as well as the third and fourth sessions of the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st Catholic ecumenical councils, ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions) ...

. Riesco retired his position on 23 November 1969 due to poor health and moved to La Bañeza where he would dedicate himself to the governance and works of his order. He died there on 2 July 1972 due to a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

and his remains are interred in the Santa María de La Bañeza church. His order received papal approval from

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

on 15 August 1982 (a decade following Riesco's death) and it now extends to countries such as

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and

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Beatification process

The beatification process opened on 26 May 1994 after the

Congregation for the Causes of Saints In the Catholic Church, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, previously named the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (), is the dicastery of the Roman Curia that oversees the complex process that leads to the canonization of saints, pa ...

named Riesco as a

upon issuing the formal "

nihil obstat ''Nihil obstat'' (Latin for "nothing hinders" or "nothing stands in the way") is a declaration of no objection that warrants censoring of a book, e.g., Catholic published books, to an initiative, or an appointment. Publishing The phrase ''ni ...

" (no objections) edict; the diocesan process was conducted from 12 October 1995 until 1 May 1997 while the C.C.S. validated the process on 24 April 1998 as having done its work. The

Positio In the Catholic Church, a ''positio'' (''Positio super Virtutibus'') is a document or collection of documents used in the process by which a person is declared Venerable, the second of the four steps on the path to canonization as a saint. Des ...

dossier was submitted to the C.C.S. in 2016 for assessment.

named Riesco as

on 5 July 2019 after confirming that the late bishop lived a life of

. Riesco's beatification depends upon papal confirmation of a miraculous healing attributed to him that neither science or medicine could explain. The possible miracle for beatification was investigated in the diocese of its origin from 14 April 2004 until some months later on 12 October. The C.C.S. validated this process on 27 April 2007. The current

postulator A postulator is the person who guides a cause for beatification or canonization through the judicial processes required by the Roman Catholic Church. The qualifications, role and function of the postulator are spelled out in the ''Norms to be Obse ...

for this cause is Dr. Silvia Mónica Correale.

References

External links

Hagiography Circle

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Riesco Carbajo, Ángel 1902 births 1972 deaths 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Spain 20th-century venerated Christians Bishops appointed by Pope Pius XII Comillas Pontifical University alumni Founders of Catholic religious communities Participants in the Second Vatican Council People from Zamora, Spain Spanish emigrants to Argentina Spanish Roman Catholic titular bishops Venerated Catholics by Pope Francis