João de Oliveira Matos Ferreira (1 March 1879 – 29 August 1962) was a Portuguese

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

prelate and bishop who served in Guarda from his appointment in 1922 until his death. He was also the founder of the League of the Servants of Jesus. The process for his beatification led on 3 June 2013 to

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

declaring him

Venerable ''The Venerable'' often shortened to Venerable is a style, title, or epithet used in some Christianity, Christian churches. The title is often accorded to holy persons for their spiritual perfection and wisdom. Catholic In the Catholic Churc ...

as recognition of his life of

heroic virtue Heroic virtue is the translation of a phrase coined by Augustine of Hippo to describe the virtue of early Christian martyrs. The phrase is used by the Roman Catholic Church. The Greek pagan term hero described a person with possibly superhuman a ...

. The pope must approve one miracle attributed to him in order for him to be beatified; one such case is now under investigation.

Life

João de Oliveira Matos Ferreira was born on 1 March 1879 in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

to Antonio de Oliveira Matos Ferreira. He had four brothers and one of those brothers was a

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

. He was

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

to the priesthood on 28 March 1903 and served as a personal assistant to the Archbishop of Braga. From 1920 to 1923 he was the Apostolic Visitor of Guarda. He was appointed as a bishop in the Guarda diocese on 11 December 1922. He was also made a

Titular Bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

at the same time and received his episcopal consecration in 1923. He also went on to establish the League of the Servants of Jesus. Ferreira died on 29 August 1962.

Beatification process

The beatification process commenced on 29 November 1993 in Guarda and the local process spanned from 1994 until 1998; the process was ratified on 13 November 1998. The

Positio A ''positio'' (short for the Latin ''positio super virtutibus'': "position on the virtues") is a document or collection of documents used in the process by which a Catholic person is declared Venerable, the second of four steps on the path to can ...

was then forwarded to 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, passi ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

in 2008.

approved his life of

and proclaimed him to be

on 3 June 2013. A miracle attributed to him was investigated and the process of investigation closed at the beginning of 2010. It was ratified on 19 November 2010.

References

External links

Catholic Hierarchy

Hagiography Circle

Saints SQPN
{{DEFAULTSORT:Matos Ferreira, João de Oliveira 1879 births 1962 deaths Venerated Catholics by Pope Francis 19th-century venerated Christians 20th-century venerated Christians Portuguese venerated Catholics Bishops of Guarda