San Pedro Poveda Castroverde He was born in Linares (Jaén) in 1874. He was ordained a priest on April 17, 1897. He remained in the diocese of Guadix as professor and spiritual director of the Seminary, vice-secretary of the bishop, secretary of the ecclesiastical government, and president of the Conferences of Saint Vincent de Paul and the Work for the Propagation of the Faith. He also obtained a degree in Theology at the Pontifical Seminary in Seville, specifically in the year 1900.
Being a diocesan priest, he founded the Teresian Institution, which received canonical approval in 1917. This institution, which was slowly formed, has joy, meekness, simplicity, and constant demand in study as traits of its spirituality.
Father Poveda published many pedagogical works and worked in education convinced that it was the engine to avoid illiteracy and thus overcome social inequalities. He had known them first-hand when caring for the people who lived in the caves on the outskirts of Guadix. He created associations of parents and teachers, since he believed that his role in the educational task was fundamental.
The Holy Face: being a canon in Jaén from 1913 to 1921
In 1913 he was appointed canon of the Cathedral of Jaén and professor of the Seminary. Also, in October of this year he inaugurated a Pedagogical Center in Linares. Later he opens in Jaén a new St. Teresa’s Academy for Teaching students and counts for its direction with the help of Josefa Segovia Morón recently graduated from the Superior School of Teaching. They are the first steps of what will become the Teresian Institution, taking into account the mission of the laity in the Church. Some of his most important writings on spirituality belong to this period from 1914 to 1919.
Last year for his party, on July 28, 2021, the Cathedral of Jaén published on his Facebook page this photo: San Pedro Poveda in the blessing with the Holy Face from the upper galleries of the Cathedral of Jaén
From Madrid to the sky
Appointed Royal Chaplain in 1921, he moved to Madrid,17 where he actively worked in the National Commission against Illiteracy,18 with the students and teachers of the Academies, with people in a situation of marginalization, in collaboration with María de Echarri, 19 journalist and creator of the Catholic women’s unions.
When the Spanish civil war broke out and religious persecution intensified, especially against priests and religious, Saint Pedro Poveda was arrested on July 27, 1936. The next day he was shot in the Almudena cemetery in Madrid.
According to the testimony of people who were present at the time of the arrest at his home, these were his words: “I am a priest of Christ». She was 61 years old. A teacher and a young doctor from the Teresian Institution found his body next to the chapel of the Nuestra Señora de la Almudena cemetery, with recent signs of having been shot in the chest. He was buried in the San Lorenzo sacramental on the 29th.
His mortal remains were transferred years later to the House of Spirituality “Santa María”, of the Teresian Institution in Los Negrales (Madrid). There they are currently venerated. Saint Pedro Poveda was canonized on May 4, 2003 by Saint John Paul II in Madrid.
