Welcome to INSPIRING LIVES, a series on lives of Saints in the catholic church
from around the world. In this series we bring you those saints who are canonized
by Pope John Paul II. Saints are holy people who lived ordinary lives in extraordinary
ways. Each saint the Church honors responded to God's invitation to use his or her
unique gifts. These saints are examples of great holiness and virtue, and they invite
us to follow their paths to holiness. Their unique stories inspire us to be rooted
in our faith. God calls each one of us to be a saint. Today we listen to the heroic
life of St. Miguel Cordero (1854-1910). He was the first Ecuadorian saint.
He was born with club feet and could not stand or walk until the age of five. But
few Ecuadorian educators had gone so far as this crippled man’s educational successes.
He was canonized on 21 October 1984 in Vatican Basilica. xxx Son of
Don Francisco Febres Cordero Montoya and Doña Ana Muñoz Cárdenas, Francisco was born
on 7th November 1854, in a colonial house in the Calle Real, in the city
of Cuenca, Ecuador. But Lady Ana’s child was a born cripple with club feet. This created
a tremor of the sort in that influential Ecuadorian family. He was baptized on 15
November 1854. Five years later a miracle happened which changed the course of
his life. One day while watching a rose bloom in the garden of his home, little Francisco
shouted, "Look how beautiful is the lady who is on the roses." Hearing this his relatives
came running, but did not see anything, yet the child kept saying, "Look how beautiful
it is. She has a white dress and a blue mantle and she calls me." And then to the
amazement of everyone, the child got up and started walking. He was completely cured
at that moment. It was the time when the great President of Ecuador and exemplary
Catholic martyr, Gabriel Garcia Moreno, invited to his country the Christian Brothers,
formidable teachers of the time. Accepting his invitation, they came and established
a school in Cuenca. It was here Francesco Febres Cordero enrolled as one of the first
students. Francesco stood out among the students for his great intelligence and his
immense desire to learn. What impressed him most in the school was the catechism lessons
and the example of his teachers. When other students went home for holidays, he stayed
in school reviewing lessons and helping the religious in their housework. It was here
his religious vocation dawned.xxxImpressed by the exemplary examples of his
teachers, Francesco wanted to join the religious institute of Christian Brothers,
but his family opposed him because they were rich and influential; for them, religious
life meant living very poorly at that time in Ecuador. Hence, instead of allowing
him to respond to God’s call, they tried to change his mind. To this end he was sent
to another school where he fell sick and had to return home. At last, his mother gave
in and on 24 March 1868, signed the authorization for his entry into the novitiate
of Christian Brothers. And on the eve of the feast of the Annunciation he received
his religious habit taking the name of Miguel. Since then he was known as Brother
Miguel Febres Cordero Francisco. He was the first Ecuadorian to be received into the
Institute of Christian Brothers. But it did not end his struggle for fidelity to the
vocation. His father did not write a line to his son for five years. As a Christian
Brother, he decided to pursue teaching as his career and began his ministry in Lasallian
schools in Quito. Esteemed teacher of Spanish language and literature, he soon discovered
that the textbooks were not updated. So he started composing grammar books. When he
was not quite twenty years old, he published the first of his many books, a Spanish
grammar that soon became a standard text in all schools in Ecuador. Interestingly,
Brother Miguel, without having any special training, published more than one hundred
books in a small country like Ecuador. Many of his books were adaptations of works
that had enjoyed in other countries. The style that brother Miguel used to teach
was very pleasant and that was the same style he used in the books he published. His
didactic works were written under the pseudonym of GM Bruno. He research and published
works on literature and linguistics put him in touch with scholars all over the world,
and earned him membership in the Ecuadorian Academy of Letters in 1892, followed by
the Academies of Spain, France, and Venezuela.xxxBrother Miguel worked tirelessly
since his entry into the Institute of Christian Brothers until his death. He dedicated
totally at the service of others - he spent long hours lecturing, teaching catechism,
attending the sick, studying languages and writing books. He devoted himself to
teaching and cultivation of letters, and became one of the most notable writers of
Ecuador. He was a member of the Academies in Ecuador, Spain, France, and Venezuela.
But above these honorable worldly titles, what he valued high was the ‘Preparation
of children for First Communion." He spent 26 consecutive years preparing them for
First Communion and he asked for that delicate task which was reserved for him from
1880 until his departure for Europe in 1907. He also composed catechism for children,
the ministry to which he devoted himself with great enthusiasm. Miguel was convinced
of the enormous influence that good reading exercise on humans. He said to himself
that there are people to whom the Lord God wanted to speak through a good book, and
there in the pages of a book awaited God's grace to transform them. Miguel’s constant
contact with the little children would leave an indelible mark on his spirituality
- the simplicity of the Gospel. Along with that simplicity shone in him the virtues
of his religious life, namely, poverty, purity, obedience, and also his Eucharistic
piety and tender devotion to Mary. xxx Following laws hostile to religious
congregations, many Christian Brothers left France in 1904. Spain and Latin America
welcomed them, but their lack of knowledge of the Spanish language created a big problem.
Hence in 1907, Brother Miguel was sent to Europe to translate texts into Spanish,
which were to be used by the Christian Brothers who were exiled from France. After
a few months in Paris, he was transferred to the General House in Lembecq-lez-Hal
in Belgium. In 1909, he was transferred to the junior novitiate at Premia del Mar,
near Barcelona, where he established an international training center. But Premia
de Mar experienced wind of revolution in July the same year. Because of frequent anticlerical
violence, brothers and young people in education were moved to Barcelona, which was
overseen by Brother Miguel. However quenched revolution made them to return to Premia
da Mar. But the Lord wanted Miguel with him for his faithful service. In the last
days of January 1910 he was suffering from pneumonia. After three days of agony, on
9 February Brother Miguel, received the sacraments and went to his heavenly abode,
leaving behind a remarkable reputation as scholar, teacher, and saint.When his Brothers
said great things about his activity, Brother Miguel used to repeat the advice of
Jesus: "when you have done all that is commanded you, say, `We are unworthy servants;
we have only done what was our duty." xxx On 30th October
1977, he was beatified by Pope Paul VI and on 21st October 1984 Pope John
Paul II canonized him. Miguel’s canonization gave the whole Church a model of simple
cleric and a humble educator who had helped many young to find meaning in their lives
and to live their faith as a commitment and as a gift. Let us remember the advice
of St. Alfonse de Liguori - Instead of doing penance wearing hair shirts or taking
lashes, a good sacrifice for immense good to the soul is this: do not leave a day
without reading a page of a spiritual book. This does advance the soul and leads to
holiness. " P.J. Joseph SJ