Mariano Avellana

Desirous of dedicating himself fully to the missions, Mariano Avellana decided to join the Congregation of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (the Claretians), founded by Saint Anthony Mary Claret. Due to the revolution of 1868 in Spain, the Claretians had taken refuge in France. Thus, on September 11, 1870, he entered the novitiate in Prades, in the south of France. He made his religious profession there on September 29, 1871. A few days earlier, on September 25, 1871, he had experienced a significant spiritual event (a vision) that definitively oriented his life toward a radical pursuit of holiness. On August 1, 1873, he embarked for Chile as part of the third Claretian expedition to America, arriving in Santiago on September 11, 1873. It was at this time that he formulated his famous life motto: "Either saint or dead" (o santo o muerto). For more than thirty years (from 1873 to 1904), Father Mariano spent himself without reserve as a missionary throughout Chile, traveling thousands of kilometers on foot, on horseback, by cart, or by train, from Araucanía to Arica. He preached more than 700 popular missions, each lasting an average of ten to fifteen days. He was part of various Claretian communities, notably in Santiago, La Serena, Valparaíso, Curicó, Coquimbo, and Cobija. His apostolate was characterized by immense charity toward the most destitute, the sick in hospitals, and the prisoners in jails, whom he visited daily. The Chilean people, touched by his zeal and kindness, quickly began to call him the "Holy Father Mariano" (Santo Padre Mariano) or the "Apostle of the North" (Apóstol del Norte). Despite severe physical suffering—notably painful skin conditions that plagued him for twenty years and a persistent wound on his leg—he refused to slow his pace of work. In May 1904, while preaching a mission in the northern mining region, he fell gravely ill in Cerro Blanco. Transferred to the hospital for the poor in Carrizal Alto (a mining village now disappeared, located in the commune of Freirina, Huasco province), he died there on May 14, 1904, at the age of 60, faithful to his desire to die among the poor.

The reputation for holiness of Father Mariano Avellana, already immense during his lifetime, spread rapidly after his death. In 1919, the informative process for his beatification was opened in the diocese of La Serena. His mortal remains were subsequently transferred to the Basilica of the Heart of Mary in Santiago, Chile, where the provincial house of the Claretian fathers is located.

The cause for beatification officially progressed in Rome under the pontificate of Pope Paul VI, who decreed the introduction of the cause on January 7, 1972. On October 23, 1987, Pope John Paul II signed the decree recognizing the heroic nature of his virtues, thus conferring upon him the title of venerable. For his beatification to be pronounced, the official recognition of a miracle attributed to his intercession is required by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

The spirituality of the Venerable Mariano Avellana is deeply rooted in the Claretian charism: a burning love for Christ and the Gospel, combined with a filial devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. His life bears witness to an absolute evangelical radicalism, summarized by his motto 'Be holy or be dead.' He knew how to transform a naturally strong and combative temperament into a force of love and gentleness in the service of the most marginalized. His legacy remains alive in Chile, particularly in Freirina where a family health center bears his name, and within the Claretian congregation, which considers him one of their greatest models of a missionary.