Blessed · Feast August 29 · 1890–1936

Bl. Pedro Asúa Mendía

Pedro Asúa Mendía was born in 1890 at Balmaseda in the Basque Country, Spain, the son of a lawyer. He studied architecture in Madrid, then entered the seminary in 1919 and was ordained a priest in 1924.

The story

Pedro Asúa Mendía was born in 1890 at Balmaseda in the Basque Country, Spain, the son of a lawyer. He studied architecture in Madrid, then entered the seminary in 1919 and was ordained a priest in 1924.

As a priest of the diocese of Vitoria he cared especially for young people and the needy. He also put his training to use, designing many church buildings, including the diocese's new seminary.

During the Spanish Civil War he kept up his ministry despite searches and arrests. After saying his last Mass on August 25, 1936, he fled, but he was caught and shot on Mount Candina at Liendo, the day before his forty-sixth birthday. He was beatified in 2014.

Blessed, not yet a saint

Pedro Asúa Mendía was beatified in 2014.

Beatification allows public veneration, usually in a particular region or religious family. Canonization extends it to the whole Church.

Sources

Sources & notes

← All 200 Blesseds · Library of saints