Andrés Manjón y Manjón

The life and work of Father Andrés Manjón are inseparable from the founding of the Ave Maria Schools (Escuelas del Ave María). At the end of 1888, while walking near the caves of the Sacromonte in Granada, he heard Gypsy children reciting prayers in a rudimentary manner. Struck by the material poverty, social exclusion, and cultural abandonment of these marginalized populations, he decided to act.

In 1889, he founded the first Ave Maria school on the slopes of the Sacromonte, in a modest house called the "Casa-Madre." His educational project was revolutionary for the time: he offered entirely free education for poor children, combining elementary instruction, moral formation, and vocational training. Father Manjón was one of the pioneers of active pedagogy and the open-air school. He rejected the passive and rigid learning methods of his time, advocating for teaching based on play, contact with nature, singing, and movement. His famous pedagogical maxim summarizes this approach: "Educate by teaching, teach by educating, and do it by playing" (Educad enseñando, enseñad educando. Hacedlo jugando).

To ensure the quality of teaching and to disseminate his method, he founded the Seminary of Teachers (Seminario de Maestros) on October 12, 1905, intended to train Christian teachers capable of applying his innovative pedagogy. The work met with dazzling success: during his lifetime, more than 300 Ave Maria schools were created in 36 Spanish provinces, and his method was exported internationally. In 1918, after thirty-eight years of university teaching, he retired from his chair of law to devote himself fully to the management of his schools and to the writing of numerous pedagogical and spiritual works.

The reputation for holiness of Father Andrés Manjón was established during his lifetime. His humility was such that he refused numerous civil and ecclesiastical honors, preferring to live in poverty in his cell at the Sacromonte Abbey and to travel by donkey. After his death on July 10, 1923, popular devotion toward him continued to grow.

The diocesan informative process for his beatification was opened on July 6, 1936, in Granada. Although slowed by the Spanish Civil War, the process was officially relaunched on April 2, 1948. The investigation into the heroic nature of his virtues was conducted with rigor by the diocesan tribunal of Granada, then transmitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome.

On November 23, 2020, Pope Francis received in audience the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing the heroic virtues of the Servant of God Andrés Manjón y Manjón. Through this decision, Father Manjón was declared Venerable.

The cause for beatification is currently underway. For the Venerable Andrés Manjón to be proclaimed Blessed, the Catholic Church must examine and officially recognize a miracle (generally a medically inexplicable healing) obtained through his intercession.

The spirituality of Andrés Manjón is deeply rooted in Marian and Eucharistic piety. The very name of his work, "Ave Maria," testifies to his absolute trust in the Virgin Mary, whom he considered the first educator. His daily life was punctuated by prayer, meditation on the Word of God, and the daily celebration of Mass.

His pedagogical and spiritual legacy remains highly relevant. Today, the Patronato Avemariano Foundation still manages numerous colleges and schools in Spain, perpetuating his vision of an integral education (physical, intellectual, moral, and religious) accessible to all, without distinction of social class. In accordance with his vows of poverty, Father Manjón rests in a simple crypt in the chapel of the Ave Maria Motherhouse in Granada, under a stone slab bearing as its only inscription the letters "A M".