Pope hopes Venezuelan s beatification will help reconciliation Doctor of the poor Jose Gregorio Hernandez often helped sick patients without asking for payment
Updated: April 30, 2021 05:19 AM GMT
Trending
A woman takes pictures with her cellphone of paintings with the image of Jose Gregorio Hernandez in the chapel of La Salle College High School in Caracas on April 28. (Photo: Yuri Cortez/AFP)
Amid the suffering due to a devastating economic crisis and a global pandemic, the beatification of José Gregorio Hernández, affectionately known as the doctor of the poor, is a testament of the faith and hope of the people of Venezuela, Pope Francis said.
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - The Venezuelan doctor José Gregorio Hernández was beatified this Friday in Caracas in a reduced ceremony, according to the security measures required by the pandemic, attended by only 150 people.
In a ceremony led by the Apostolic Nuncio in Venezuela, Aldo Giordano, and in the presence of the ecclesiastical authorities, the doctor of the poor became the first blessed of the Caribbean country, where it is hoped that he will soon be canonized, for which the veracity of a second miracle must be provided. From now on, he will be called blessed and will be . . .
A painting of José Gregorio Hernández is displayed by the main door at the Church of Colegio La Salle in Caracas, Venezuela, April 28, 2021, during preparations for his April 30 beatification. Hernández was a Venezuelan doctor known for treating hundreds of poor patients for free and who died in 1919. (CNS photo/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria, Reuters) Apr. 30, 2021 Catholic News Service BOGOTÁ, Colombia – A Venezuelan doctor who treated patients during the Spanish flu pandemic and was one of the first to introduce microscopes to his nation s hospitals was beatified April 30 in an austere ceremony held in Caracas, the city where he spent much of his life tending to the sick.
BBC News
Published
image captionJosé Gregorio Hernández is revered in Venezuela as the doctor of the poor
A Venezuelan doctor known for treating the poor during the Spanish flu pandemic a century ago has been beatified, a step toward sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church.
José Gregorio Hernández, who was born in 1864, is revered in the country as the doctor of the poor .
He died at the age of 54 in 1919, after being struck by a car in Caracas.
The beatification comes after the Church attributed a miracle to him for saving the life of a young girl.
Yaxury Solórzano survived after being shot in the head during an attempted robbery in 2017. Doctors said that, if she survived, she would be permanently disabled.