At Seville in Spain, Blessed Marcelo Spínola y Maestre, bishop, who, to advance human society, founded circles for workingmen, championed truth and justice, and opened his house to the poor.
Lifespan: 1835–1906
Beatified: 29 March 1987 by Pope John Paul II
Memoria liturgica: 19 January
I can do all things through him who strengthens me (Phil 4:13)
Marcelo Spínola y Maestre was born on the island of San Fernando (Cádiz) in Spain, on 14 January 1835, into the noble families of Spínola and Maestre.
He earned a law degree in 1855 and went on to practise as a lawyer, distinguishing himself by offering free legal assistance to the poor. After leaving the legal profession he entered the seminary in Seville and was ordained a priest in 1864.
For fifteen years he served as chaplain at Sanlúcar de Barrameda and as parish priest of San Lorenzo in Seville. He was also spiritual director to several local confraternities. In 1879 he became a canon of the cathedral, and in 1881 he was elected auxiliary bishop of Seville, before being appointed bishop of the diocese of Coria. He founded the congregation of the Conceptionist Handmaids of the Divine Heart of Jesus.
In 1886 he was transferred to the more prominent diocese of Málaga, where the people came to call him “the holy bishop.”
In 1896 he became Archbishop of Seville, where his willingness to share in the hardships of the poor earned him the title “the mendicant archbishop.” In 1905 he was created a cardinal.
He died in Seville in 1906 and was numbered among the blessed in 1987.