So many have been the prodigies that are attributed to the intercession of the Franciscan Blessed Sebastián de Aparicio, that the silver urn that today covers his incorrupt body was made with the ex -senuts offered by his devotees in a show of gratitude.
This is shared with ACI Press Fray Enrique Rivera, Franciscan and vicepostulator of the cause of canonization of Blessed Sebastián de Aparicio, interviewed in the convent of the San Francisco sores in Puebla (Mexico), which in a special chapel welcomes the body of the Franciscan Blessed, as well as the many devotees who come to ask for their intercession.
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Blessed Sebastián has many patronage in charge. He is the employer of carriers and drivers, for his well -known work by opening roads in Mexico – new Spain, then – of the 16th century, and touring with their cart for them; It is also from the charros, for their rider’s ability and to launch the tie to the cattle. And women who are waiting for a child also resort to him.
They came to look for Blessed Sebastian pregnant women, says Fray Enrique, and he put the rope of their habit on the belly “and they already did light.”
It was beatified on May 17, 1789 by Pope Pius VI, but more than two centuries later the long -awaited canonization has not arrived. “Many say that it is the humility of the Blessed, who does not want them to canonice it,” jokes Fray Enrique.
The surprising life of Blessed Sebastián de Aparicio
Blessed Sebastián lived almost 98 years, something not very usual in the seventeenth century. He was born on January 20, 1502 in La Gudiña, province of Orense, in the current Autonomous Community of Galicia. From his parents, Juan Aparicio and Teresa Prado learned love and service to God.
Being teenager, remember the Biography of the Blessed contained in the Franciscan SantoralSebastián fell ill of bubonic plague and had to be away from his house in a small cabin, to prevent others from being infected.
One of those days, when it seemed that there was no hope for Blessed, a wolf entered his room and bit one of the inflamed wounds that characterize the disease, and then leave.
The next day, surprisingly, Sebastián was cured. “A miracle was perceived that the wolf had sucked everything bad to Blessed,” says Fray Enrique.
In 1533, two years after the foundation of the city, it arrived in Puebla de los Ángeles – today officially called Puebla de Zaragoza – Sebastián de Aparicio. The territory of what we currently knows as Mexico had the Franciscan imprint, and the so -called “12 apostles” of Mexico, of the Franciscan order, had arrived less than a decade before to evangelize the region.
In that area became known as a rider and, it is said that associated with another Spaniard, launched the first cart to function in American lands. Sebastían de Aparicio also became the first merchandise carrier in New Spain, carrying the products from the port of Veracruz to the current city of Mexico, and then also connecting Zacatecas on their roads.
“That is why it is the patron of the drivers, of the roads. That is why cars are blessed here,” says Fray Enrique.
At the same time that his income grew, he did the generosity that all his life had practiced today Blessed. He always had some gift for the most needy, especially for poor Indians. He was also known for his fair treatment towards his workers.
The transport business profits allowed you to have extensive haciendas.
He got to marry twice, being older, but twice he widowed. This is how he decides to enter religious life.
The resignation of wealth and an old age dedicated to the service
At the end of 1573 donates its farms and other goods to the Clariesas. At the same time, he gives himself as donated to the service of the religious.
Those who donated to a religious order, said the Franciscan friar, “they gave and gave their workforce to live within the convent.”
Those tasks, he said, included taking care of “the gardens, the orchards, the cleaning of the floors, cloisters, the touched of the bells.”
With seven decades in tow, Blessed’s life was already very simple. “In itself his whole life was to sleep on the floor,” recalls Fray Enrique. “Despite his wealth, he lived a penitent life,” he said.
The following year, he entered as a Franciscan novice, with 72 years, even though he had misgongated to receive him for his advanced age. “They didn’t want to admit it,” Fray Enrique shares.
In 1575 he makes his vows and, after a brief passage through Tecali, he returns to Puebla, where a alms was necessary.
“They send him alms with his cart, so that he would walk through all the villages here collecting corn, pumpkin, beans. And there he walked and evangelized,” says Fray Enrique.
He had a cell in the convent, recalls the vicepostulator of his cause of canonization, “but never occupied it”, because always walking in the cart on the villages slept there. “When it rained, he got down the cart,” he says.
“Here at that time there were about 200 friars to feed them,” he says, and adds: “To date it feeds us blessed.”
“The people have canonized it”
“People have a lot of devotion to ‘San Sebastián’.
Touring the surrounding areas with their cart, they began to attribute wonders. “He threw the blessing to a land” so that the rain is helpful and the abundant harvest, “and in that field nothing more rained, in the other it did not rained.”
Another story is that of a small child who was hit by a cart, which “passes over the child, kills him. Then, Blessed hugs him and returns him to life.”
On another occasion it is said that Blessed was in his cart “and the wheel was loose”, without suffering any accident. When asked about it, he replied that “San Francisco helps me. And that’s why there is a painting with San Francisco (holding) the cart,” says Fray Enrique.
The surprising events accompanied him to death. When he died, after suffering because of a painful hernia, says Fray Enrique, his body, far from presenting the usual signs of death, “becomes pretty” and “the arms do not get stiff and begin to smell beautiful.”
Since then, his body has remained incorrupt, although his head has a wax coated. In fact, he shares, “sometimes the chapel (where Blessed’s body is located) smells beautiful,” like flowers.
Despite the extensive devotion, since its beatification in 1789, great progress has been made for canonization.
They have come to consider another possibility, that of the canonization known as “equivalent” or “extraordinary.” It has been the case recently, among others, from San Juan XXIII, San Pedro Fabro and San José Anchieta, during the pontificate of Pope Francis.
In 2018, the Mexican Episcopate Conference voted mostly in favor of asking the Holy Father with the canonization of Blessed, and was the same archbishop of Puebla, Mons. Víctor Sánchez Espinosa, who brought the request to Rome. However, there was no success.
What is needed now, Fray Enrique emphasizes, “is that someone, with great prudence and very careful, documes the miracle.”
“We are waiting for the miracle,” he insists, but confesses that “the main miracle is the cult that has been kept to Blessed for so many years, from 1600 to 2025”.
David Ramos
Graduate in Communication Sciences by the Private University of the North in Trujillo, Peru. With more than 12 years of experience in Catholic journalism working in ACI Press, I am based in Mexico since 2018. I have covered the trips of Pope Francis to Ecuador, Paraguay, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Peru and Panama.