NOTES ABOUT HIS LIFE

The founder of our Religious Family is Fray Luis Amigó y Ferrer, OFMCap.

He was born on October 17, 1854 in Massamagrell (Valencia – Spain) and throughout his almost 80 years, he lived through delicate moments in the history of Spain. He was tested by the premature death of his parents during his childhood, he deeply cultivated his Christian life and committed himself to some groups that allowed him to make a journey of faith and dedicate himself to works of mercy, such as visiting the sick at the Hospital de Valencia and the inmates in the prison; among these groups we mention the Secular Franciscan Third Order that deeply marked his life.

The call to a consecrated life manifested itself with increasing clarity throughout his youth and, because, in those years, all religious presence had been suppressed in Spain, in 1874 he traveled to Bayonne (France) and wore the habit in the Capuchin convent where the Spanish brothers had taken refuge when forced to leave their homeland and, the following year, he made his religious profession. Three years later, he was part of the first group of Capuchins to return to Spain to restore the Order there. In 1879, he was ordained a priest and began to develop his ministry with enthusiasm and creativity, in the style and in the most typical areas of Capuchin life: preaching, confessions, apostolate with the youth and lay people of the Third Order and in places of suffering as the prisons and hospitals. This put him in contact with many people and, in a sense, led him towards the project that God had for him as Founder.

The encounter with people desiring a life of “greater perfection” inspired the founding of a Congregation of religious and in the cell of his convent in Massamagrell, he began to write the Constitutions reflecting in it the Franciscan-Capuchin spirituality that he himself lived with enthusiasm. Very soon, God put some women on his way who wanted to live the Constitutions and, having completed the required canonical procedures, on May 11, 1885, in the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Montiel (Valencia – Spain), the Congregation of the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family was born. Its Founder was 30 years old, but he was a man of God, capable of guiding and accompanying the path of the nascent congregation with humble wisdom, strength of spirit, trust in Providence, and vision of the future.

In 1889, projecting his special sensitivity to the youth at risk or already “deviated from the path of good”, Father Luis founded the Congregation of the Capuchin Tertiary Religious of Our Lady of Sorrows, whose apostolic service, unlike that of the Sisters that was open to various fields, was directed in a more specific way to the education and re-education of children and young people with behavior problems.

In 1907, Father Luis Amigó was appointed bishop and since then, until his death, he accompanied the path of the Spanish Dioceses of Solsona (Lérida) and Segorbe (Castellón), standing out for his interest and initiatives in favor of the family and the more vulnerable social classes, workers and peasants, and for his zeal in promoting and putting into practice the social doctrine of the Church and forming in Christian faith and morals.

He died in Godella (Valencia – Spain) on September 30, 1934 and his remains rest in the chapel of our Mother House in Massamagrell (Valencia – Spain).

The theologians who analyzed all the documentation related to his Beatification Process, underlined “the perfect rectitude of his life and his permanent progress in virtues and in union with God, ascending the arduous path of holiness, combining his natural gifts and divine grace. They valued the admirable way in which he combined his being a Capuchin, founder, and bishop, affirming that “his message constitutes a reverberating call for the time we are living, not only for the clergy and religious, but for all the people of God.”

On June 13, 1992, he was declared “Venerable.” For his beatification a miracle attributable to his intercession is needed.