Venerated in Roman Catholic Church Attributes Franciscan habit | Feast 18 April Patronage Murcia
Alcantarilla | |
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Beatified 22 May 1791, Saint Peter's Basilica, Papal States by Pope Pius VI Died 18 April 1602, Gandia, Spain | ||
Blessed Andrés Hibernón Real (1534 - 18 April 1602) was a Spanish Roman Catholic professed religious from the Order of Friars Minor. Hibernón was born to nobles who fell poor and was robbed when he sought to provide funds for his parents - this occurrence prompted him to revise his approach to material and spiritual goods and so became a friar to cultivate his spiritual needs.
Contents
His beatification received formal approval from Pope Pius VI in mid-1791.
Life
Andrés Hibernón Real was born in Murcia in 1534. He came from an old noble house that was reduced to the state of poorness due to a range of adverse circumstances and so his uncle in Valencia assumed charge of his initial education in order to relieve his parents of their economic situation as a lesser burden. He was baptized in the Murcia Cathedral where an uncle of his was a chaplain.
In his late childhood and into his adolescence he endeavored to earn funds that would support his parents and siblings and he saved a considerable amount on one occasion to provide for his sister's impending marriage and so left where he was to travel back home to Murcia. En route home a group of thieves attacked him and stripped him of all he had. Hibernón interpreted this as a sign of how much he depended on material goods and so resolved to labor for the remainder of his life for other goods that people could not take from him. In Albacete in 1556 he begged to be admitted into a convent of the Order of Friars Minor and so was admitted into it on 1 November 1557 where he commenced his period of novitiate and received the habit.
He frequented Marian shrines and often spent hours on end kneeling in silent and deep meditation before the tabernacle that housed the Eucharist he fostered an ardent devotion to. The friar often accompanied priests to visit ill people. In February 1563 he relocated to the Alcantarine Franciscan reform convent of San José in Elche and in 1564 attended the vesting of the habit of Saint Paschal Baylon. He remained there until 1574 save for a short duration of time in Villena. In 1574 his superiors sent him to undertake the establishment of a convent in Valencia where he made friends with the Archbishop of Valencia Saint Juan de Ribera.
He died on 18 April 1602 - he had foretold that exact date of his death in 1598. He died right after he recited the rosary. His incorrupt remains are now housed in the Murcia Cathedral - though some in Alcantarilla - after being relocated from Gandia in 1936 due to the Spanish Civil War.
Beatification
The beatification for the late friar was proposed under Pope Urban VIII in 1624 though no formal process was initiated and thus the cause did not come to fruition during that pontificate. The beatification did later receive formal approval from Pope Pius VI who confirmed the local 'cultus' - or popular devotion - in a decree issued on 22 May 1791.
He was made the patron for Alcantarilla in May 1950.