Faustino Míguez

For nearly fifty years, Faustino Míguez taught Latin, history, physics, chemistry, natural sciences, and French in Piarist colleges. Passionate about botany, he studied the medicinal properties of plants, analyzed the waters of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, and developed natural remedies; he registered twelve medicines, the "Específicos Míguez," and founded a pharmaceutical laboratory in Getafe. Touched by the condition of poor young girls, who were often deprived of instruction, he decided to dedicate a lasting work to them. On January 2, 1885, in Sanlúcar de Barrameda (Cádiz), with the agreement of his superior and the Archbishop of Seville, he founded the Calasanzian Institute of the Daughters of the Divine Shepherd (Instituto Calasancio Hijas de la Divina Pastora), a congregation dedicated to the education and Christian advancement of women according to the pedagogy of Saint Joseph of Calasanz. The institute received diocesan approval in 1889 and pontifical approval in 1910, with its definitive constitutions being approved in 1922. This congregation, dedicated to evangelization through schooling, constitutes the founder's main work and expanded beyond Spain after his death.

The reputation for holiness of Faustino Míguez rests on the coherence between his inner life and his actions. A religious faithful to the Calasanctian spirituality, he saw in the education of children and young girls a work of mercy and a path of evangelization. His zeal for the instruction of poor girls, at a time when such education was rare, testifies to an attention to the marginalized and a faith put into practice; some contemporary commentators have highlighted the pioneering nature of his promotion of women. A sought-after confessor and spiritual director, he also put his scientific knowledge at the service of the sick, treating the most destitute for free thanks to his herbal preparations. The Church recognized the heroic nature of his virtues, the first canonical step toward his beatification, by valuing his humility, patience, and religious obedience during his long years of teaching.

The cause of Faustino Míguez led to his beatification, celebrated in Rome on October 25, 1998, by Pope John Paul II, following the recognition of a miracle attributed to his intercession. His canonization was pronounced by Pope Francis on October 15, 2017, in Saint Peter's Square in Rome, during a celebration in which thirty-five blessed were inscribed in the catalogue of saints, among whom were also numerous Brazilian martyrs and the Italian Angelo d'Acri. This canonization took place during a Calasanctian jubilee year. According to hagiographic sources, the miracle accepted for the beatification concerned the healing of an Argentine teenager, and the one accepted for the canonization the healing of a woman in Chile in the early 2000s; these facts are part of the cause's file. His liturgical memorial is fixed for March 8, the anniversary of his death.

The legacy of Saint Faustino Míguez continues above all in the congregation he founded, the Calasanzian Institute of the Daughters of the Divine Shepherd, whose religious sisters carry on the educational work in schools and centers in Spain, Latin America, and beyond. Faithful to the spirit of their founder and the pedagogy of Saint Joseph of Calasanz, they continue to prioritize the education of children and young girls, particularly the most disadvantaged. The figure of the saint, at once a teaching priest, botanist, and founder, remains venerated within the Calasanzian family and the Pious Schools. His town of Celanova, his native Galicia, and the city of Getafe, where he lived his final years and where he died, keep his memory alive. His dual vocation as an educator and a man of science attentive to the sick makes him a reference for those who seek to unite faith, knowledge, and service to the poorest.