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Manuel González Garcia
1877-1940 Manuel González Garcia,
Bishop of Malaga and Palencia, was born in Seville on
25 February 1877. On 21 September 1901, Bl. Cardinal Marcello Spinola ordained
him a priest. In 1902 he was sent to
preach a mission at Palomares del Rio, where God gave him a grace that
would define the whole of his priestly life. After hearing the discouraging
prospects for his mission from the sacristan, he went directly to the tabernacle
even though it was neglected and poorly kept and made an act of courageous faith
in the Real Presence. In faith he saw Jesus, so quiet, so patient and so good,
looking at him, telling him many things and asking him even more. There and then
he received his special charism. In 1905 he was sent to
Huelva. As a parish priest of St Peter's parish and archpriest of Huelva, he set
about catechizing the young and taking care of needy children, for whom he
opened schools. He also published the first of his many books: Lo que puede
un cura boy (What a Parish Priest Can Do Today). On 4 March 1910 he
explained his great desire for reparation to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament to a
group of women, faithful
collaborators in his apostolic activity asking them to become the Mary's of the
tabernacle. For him an abandoned tabernacle was like Calvary, where Christ died
on the Cross abandoned by all except Mary, John, Mary Magdalene and a few
faithful women. In 1910 the work "Opera
para los Sagrarios Calvarios" was born to give a response of loving
reparation to the love of Christ in the Eucharist. The great family of the
Eucharistic Reparatory Union began with the branch of laywomen Marias de los
Sagrarios y Discipulos de San Juan. Also in 1919, Fr Manuel founded the
Children's Eucharistic Reparation. Then in 1918, he founded the priests'
branch, Eucharistic Missionaries. In 1921, in collaboration with his sister
Maria Antonia he began the religious Congregation of the Misioneras
Eucaristicas de Nazareth. In 1932 he founded the institution of the
Misioneras Auxiliares Nazarenas, and in 1939 the Juventud Eucaristica
Reparadora. In 1912 St Pius X blessed his initiatives. Pope Benedict XV named him
Auxiliary Bishop of Malaga. He was consecrated Bishop on 16 January 1916. In
1920 he was appointed residential Bishop and he celebrated by serving with the
priests and seminarians, a feast for 3,000 poor children. As pastor of Malaga, he
built schools and parish catechetical centers, and discovered that the most
urgent problem was the need for priests. With boundless trust in the Providence
of the Heart of Jesus, he set about building a new seminary. One of his dreams
and projects was for a substantially Eucharistic seminary, in which the
Eucharist would be the center of every activity, from teaching and formation to
administration and architecture. To his priests and to the
members of his foundations, he proposed that they “arrive at being a host in
union with the consecrated Host", which means giving oneself to God and to one's
neighbor, in an irrevocable way. On 11 May 1931, he was
attacked directly by the revolutionaries. The Bishop's residence was set on fire
and he was forced to move to Gibraltar in order not to endanger the lives of
those who took him into their homes. From 1932 he was ordered by the Holy See to
govern his Diocese from Madrid. On 5 August 1935 Pope Pius XI appointed him
Bishop of Palencia. In the last years, his health deteriorated considerably, a trial he bore heroically, never losing his smile, ever warm and friendly and in complete acceptance of God's will. He gave up his soul to the Lord on 4 January 1940 and was buried in the cathedral of Palencia, where we can read on his gravestone: "I ask to be buried close to a tabernacle, so that my bones, after death, like my tongue and my pen in my lifetime, may ever speak to passersby saying: "Here is Jesus! He is here! Do not abandon him!"
Source: L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO
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Hagiography Circle]. All rights reserved.
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