Manuel Aparici Navarro (11 December 1902 – 28 August 1964) was a Spanish Roman Catholic

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 exercised his pastoral mission in his home of

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

and served as a member of

Catholic Action Catholic Action is a movement of Catholic laity, lay people within the Catholic Church which advocates for increased Catholic influence on society. Catholic Action groups were especially active in the nineteenth century in historically Catholic cou ...

. He focused on the motivation of the faithful in the participation of both the Sacraments and of church life. He was proclaimed to be

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 ...

in 2013 on the account 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 ...

Life

Manuel Aparici Navarro was born on 11 December 1902 in

into a life of wealth. Navarro completed his studies and in 1922 entered the Customs Technical Corps by competitive examination, where he worked for years. In 1929, he abandoned his law studies and joined the Catholic Association of Propagandists (ACdP). In 1932, he became a member of

. He served as the Youth Chairman of the Spanish Catholic Action from 1934 until 1941 during the period of persecutions of the Catholic faith during the onslaught of the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

. In 1936, Aparici had started the magazine ''Signo,'' with the idea of having a Catholic newspaper for youth. In 1941, he finally left the presidency of the Catholic Action youth to enter the Seminary. He was ordained in 1947, at the age of 45. In August 1948, he organized a pilgrimage of 100,000 participants to Santiago de Compostela for the jubilee. He also served as the chaplain for the chapter from 1950 until 1959 and helped to pioneer the Cursillo Movement to help motivate the participation of the faithful in church life. His health began to decline in 1959 and he died on 28 August 1964, The anniversary of the pilgrimage to Compostela.

Beatification process

The beatification process commenced under

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

in Madrid on 17 June 1994 which granted him the title

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 ...

. The cause saw the accumulation of both documentation and witness testimonies. The process spanned from mid 1994 until 14 October 1998; the process received formal ratification on 15 October 1999 in order for the cause to proceed to the next stage. 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 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 ...

in 2000 for further evaluation. On 27 March 2013 he was proclaimed to be

after

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 ...

recognized his life of

. The miracle needed for beatification was investigated in a local tribunal and closed on 13 October 2005.

References

External links

Hagiography CircleSaints SQPN
{{DEFAULTSORT:Navarro, Manuel Aparici 1902 births 1964 deaths 20th-century venerated Christians 20th-century Spanish Roman Catholic priests Venerated Catholics by Pope Francis Clergy from Madrid