Pablo de Anda Padilla

On March 25, 1886, Father Pablo de Anda Padilla founded the Congregation of the Minims of Mary Immaculate in León, with the approval of Bishop Tomás Barón y Morales. The first religious sisters dedicated themselves to education, the care of the sick, and aid to orphans. He created the Casa de Misericordia, apprenticeship workshops, the Hospital of San José, the Colegio de Señor San José, and a Normal School. He also built the Sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe in León, consecrated in 1875.

The cause for beatification opened with the nihil obstat from the Holy See on October 27, 1983. The diocesan process, opened on March 24, 1984, by Bishop Anselmo Zarza y Bernal, was closed on July 5, 1992, by Bishop Rafael García. After the validation of the process in 1993, Pope John Paul II authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing the heroic nature of his virtues on June 28, 1999, conferring upon him the title of Venerable.

Currently recognized as Venerable, the proclamation of his beatification requires the recognition of a miracle. A diocesan process regarding an alleged miracle was opened in 1995 and closed on September 26, 1996, by Bishop José Guadalupe Martín Rábago. The file is currently under study at the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints in Rome.

Nicknamed the "apostle of charity," his spirituality is based on the love of the poor and a Marian devotion. Stricken by illness as early as 1901, he passed away on June 29, 1904, in León due to bladder stones, after having exhorted his religious sisters: "Be holy, be holy." His body rests in the chapel of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Guadalupe in León. His congregation is present today in five countries.