Canonization of Hermano Pedro followed his beatification, where he was defined as a true precursor of Human Rights in the 17th century.
Hermano Pedro is the first and only Canary Islander to be canonized. In a ceremony on July 30, 2002, at 4:42 PM, Pope John Paul II declared the Tenerife shepherd a saint in Guatemala, in the presence of one million believers. The ceremony took place at the Hipódromo del Sur in Guatemala City.
Public Celebration
The canonization of Hermano Pedro took place with the rhetorical key phrase: “After much reflection, invoking divine assistance many times, and consulting the opinion of the brothers of the episcopate, we declare and define the blessed Brother Pedro de San José de Betancurt as a saint and we place him in the catalog of saints.”
At that same moment, the bells of all churches on Tenerife began to ring, starting with the church of San Pedro Apóstol in Vilaflor de Chasna, the birthplace of the shepherd boy. Over a thousand people followed the canonization of Hermano Pedro on television from the pilgrimage site in El Médano. An endless applause rose from the place where Hermano Pedro had settled with his flock of goats. In Guatemala, the country where Brother Pedro did much of his work and where he founded the Bethlehemite Order dedicated to caring for the sick poor, a true public celebration took place.
Miraculous Healing
In his homily, the culmination of a 350-year-long process of canonization, John Paul II, visibly tired from his old age, referred to the Chasnero as a man of deep faith, both in his homeland Tenerife and in all later stages of his life.
One of the most anticipated moments of the Eucharistic celebration was the communion of 22-year-old Adalberto González, whose healing in 1985 served as the documentation for the miracle required for canonization. When Bertito was five years old, he overcame a serious intestinal disease attributed to prayers with a relic of Brother Pedro.
6,000 White Roses
The ceremony, attended by seven heads of state and 700 priests from the Canary Islands and Central American countries, lasted two and a half hours and was attended by a large delegation of islanders. Four hundred Tenerifian citizens, led by Canary Island president Román Rodríguez, the bishop of Tenerife, Felipe Fernández, the president of the Cabildo, Ricardo Melchior, and the mayor of Vilaflor de Chasna, José Luis Fumero. The flags of Spain, Tenerife, and the Canary Islands waved alongside those of the Vatican and Guatemala on the immense esplanade, which was covered by a large altar made of 6,000 white roses and 200 flower arrangements, including typical Canary Island flowers.
Beatified in 1980
Brother Pedro was born in Vilaflor de Chasna on March 19, 1626. At the age of 23, he left Tenerife and arrived two years later in Antigua de Guatemala. There, he gave himself body and soul to the poor. He visited hospitals, prisons, homes for the poor, and unemployed emigrants, and founded the Bethlehemite Order, which still carries out its apostolic and charitable mission today in America, Italy, India, and Spain. He passed away on April 25, 1667, at the age of 41. He was beatified in Rome, also by Pope John Paul II, on June 22, 1980, alongside the missionary from Laguna, José de Anchieta, the apostle of Brazil, who became the second Canary saint on April 3, 2014, during a ceremony presided over by Pope Francis.
Hermano Pedro and Human Rights
For Nelson Díaz Frías, magistrate, historian, and official chronicler of Vilaflor de Chasna, Brother Pedro can be considered the most relevant and universal figure of all Canary Islanders, regarded as a true precursor of Human Rights in the 17th century, long before the Universal Declaration was written.
Díaz Frías notes that the religious Chasnero “offered his help and comfort to all who needed it in the stratified Guatemalan society of the 17th century, making no distinction based on race, gender, age, social or ethnic origin.” He emphasizes that he was a precursor in the field of literacy for children, especially for indigenous and black children. He was ahead of his time, as he was the first to promote social assistance in America after the establishment of the first Convalescent Hospital. Many seriously ill people died without anyone to care for them.
Education for All
Miguel Torres, a numerical member of the Academy of Geography and History of Guatemala and one of the great experts on the life and work of the saint from Tenerife, points out the admiration that his fellow countrymen have for him.
Torres highlighted the continuity of his work through the so-called Obra Social del Santo Hermano Pedro and the key role he played in promoting egalitarian education. Not only did he give poor children access to education, but he also introduced the concept of education for both men and women.
Proud Mayor
For the mayor of Vilaflor de Chasna, Agustina Beltrán, the little Brother Pedro – as they still call him in the municipality with special devotion and admiration – is a source of pride, and the twentieth anniversary of his canonization is an opportunity to highlight the qualities of our local resident. He who was born and lived in our municipality, and later carried the name of our town, as well as that of Tenerife and the Canary Islands, across the Atlantic, where he did great work.
The Vilaflor de Chasna City Council has unanimously approved the request to appoint Hermano Pedro as co-patron of the dioceses of Nivariense and the Canary Islands.
His remains rest in the Church of San Francisco, in Antigua Guatemala, a pilgrimage site visited annually by tens of thousands of believers.
Radio Estrella © Photography
Canonization of Hermano Pedro ©
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