| Part 1 Friar Is 1st to Be Beatified on
Caribbean Island
By Dominik Hartig
HAVANA, Cuba, 27 NOV. 2008 (ZENIT)
The people of Cuba will witness Saturday the first beatification
ceremony performed on the island, as Friar José Olallo Valdés is raised
to the altar.
Called a "hero of charity," the religious of the Hospitaller Order of
the Brothers of St. John of God is the second Cuban to be beatified.
ZENIT interviewed Father Félix Lizaso, of that same order, the
postulator for the beatification cause, to learn about the spiritual
legacy of Friar Valdés.
This interview will be published in two parts. Part 2 will appear
Friday.
Q: Tell us, first of all, who José Olallo Valdés was, and his
significance for the members of the Hospitaller Order of St. John of
God, in particular, and for the faithful, in general.
Father Lizaso: Brother Olallo Valdés was a religious of the Order of St.
John of God, whose existence was practically unknown, being the last
survivor in Cuba at the time when the legislation of the Spanish
government suppressed religious orders in Spain and Latin America,
around the year 1835. Scarcely a few annals of the order bear any record
of his existence.
He was born in 1820 in Havana, Cuba, and spent the entire 69 years of
his life in Cuba, 54 of them in Camaguey, where he died in 1889. His
full name was José Olallo Valdés, but he always signed as Fray Olallo
Valdés. Popularly, he was known as "Father Olallo," although he never
became a priest because he refrained from being ordained when it was
suggested to him, in order to be able to continue his nursing work at
the hospital.
Among men, the name José was often combined with another given name,
just as the name María is used in combination with other names for
women; that is why we consider it more appropriate for him to be
referred to as Blessed Olallo Valdés.
For the centenary of his death, in 1989, due to his popularity and fame
of saintliness among the people, a group of laypeople of Camaguey
commemorated the anniversary. This was the occasion for Archbishop
Adolfo Rodríguez Herrera of Camagüey and Manuel Cólliga, a Spanish
resident in Havana of the Hospitallers, to invite the then recently
appointed superior-general of the order, Australian Friar Brian
O'Donnell, to the commemorative ceremonies. Archbishop Adolfo took
advantage of the opportunity and asked Father Brian if the order could
support the investigation of Olallo Valdés's cause, with a view to his
canonization.
This led to the preparation and celebration of his process toward
beatification. Brother Olallo, known as "father of the poor" and
"apostle of charity," lived and died amid great admiration as an
exemplary and worthy man, and as an outstanding nurse and enthusiastic
servant of the most underprivileged members of society in Camaguey,
fully embodying the hospitaller charism of his vocation.
Upon his death, the people and the entire society of Camaguey came
together, despite their strong social and political differences, to
honor him with a solemn burial. After that, a collection was taken up,
in addition to other fundraisers, with the aim of building a mausoleum
which, for one century, has been visited by a great number of devotees
seeking help and intercession.
Brother Olallo's beatification is particularly significant for all of
Cuba, as well as for Camaguey. It is equally relevant for the Brothers
of St. John of God, insofar as it represents the discovery of a
religious who, in a short time, has become admired for his outstanding
hospitaller features. His extraordinary testimony of saintliness and
hospitality, and his popular renown as a saint, which have been
recognized by the Church in a relatively short time, appear at a very
special moment for vocations, not only in Europe, but also for Latin
America and for the whole order. This beatification may serve as a
strong catalyst for everyone.
The motto used for his beatification is indicative: "He cared for the
poor, the sick, lepers, the abandoned and dying; for sick and uneducated
children; for elderly people lacking a family, for sick people in jail;
for Africans and Asians; he was against slavery. He endeavored to be
everything for everyone."
Q: José Olallo will be the second blessed of Cuba and, for the first
time, a beatification is to take place on the island. What does the
Church in Cuba expect of this historical event, and how is it preparing
for it?
Father Lizaso: Yes, indeed. Our Blessed Olallo will be the second Cuban
beatified, and the first to be beatified in Cuba. However, actually, he
is in a sense the first, because he is undoubtedly the most popular and
venerated on the island as a saint.
The first Cuban to be beatified, José López Piteira, was merely born in
Cuba, of Spanish immigrant parents who stayed on the island for only a
few years; he returned to Spain with his parents as a child. He later
became an Augustinian religious and died a martyr very young, in 1936.
In fact, he was not known in Cuba, the only record being his certificate
of baptism.
The beatification of Brother Olallo Valdés, of the Order of St. John of
God, historically the first to be performed on the island, will take
place in the city of Camaguey on Saturday. The approval of the
beatification and the miracle has stirred great enthusiasm, because of
the significance, encouragement, and comfort for Cubans and the Church
in Cuba from a saint of their own country.
The Cuban bishop's conference recommended that the occasion be
celebrated with due preparation, to ensure a better knowledge of the
life and testimony of Olallo Valdés, and to awaken deeper and more
realistic awareness of the event.
The archbishopric of Camaguey has distributed a questionnaire with 100
items on historical, cultural and religious aspects concerning the new
blessed, which will also contribute to this preparation. Furthermore,
frequent pilgrimages are being made to his tomb and to the church of St.
John of God, where his body has been venerated since 2004. These involve
the various Christian communities and associations, including those of
artists and other religious and cultural entities, giving rise to
particular enthusiasm and interest.
The Brothers of St. John of God have also contributed generously from
the beginning of the examination of the cause and are doing so now,
perhaps to a greater extent. Every effort will be worthwhile and Cuba
deserves it, together with the Cuban people, and Father Olallo himself.
Olallo's saintliness, as well as this beatification, are also concrete
signs that the Church is always in the midst of the people, of its
needs, and ready to serve for their own good. That is what Olallo did,
and his life stands as a lasting example to be followed.
Furthermore, all this will increase knowledge of his life and wonderful
testimony, thus spreading, for the benefit of all, his veneration,
devotion, imitation and intercession, not only in terms of faith and
religiousness, but also in the social and health care sphere, where he
was most involved.
Q: Can Olallo's beatification encourage the religiosity of the whole
Christian people, beyond Cuba?
Father Lizaso: Undoubtedly. A saint does not only exert his or her
influence at local or institutional levels, which in this case would
mean Cuba and the Brothers of St. John of God, but, especially after
canonization, the value of their testimony and intercession becomes
appreciated universally, throughout the Church, all over the world.
The example and testimony of Blessed Olallo, currently known and
venerated almost exclusively in Cuba, resounds mainly among the
Christians of the island. In fact, the worthy humanitarian and Christian
welfare work to which he wholly devoted himself accounted for the
broadcasting of his exemplary life, and provided the postulator with
enough material for the examination of his cause. Among the Cuban
people, Father Olallo is considered a main character and a local and
national hero, and this, of course, also contributes to the welcome and
acceptance his beatification awakens at every level.
Besides, without any doubt, the step involved in the beatification of
our Olallo has been received with particular satisfaction by all the
Cuban people. However, throughout the Hospitaller Order, spread all over
the world, he has begun to be known in many other places, as well as by
a number of Cubans abroad, many of whom greet the event with much hope
and joy.
Part 2
Friar Is 1st to Be Beatified on Caribbean Island
By Dominik Hartig
HAVANA, Cuba, 28 NOV. 2008 (ZENIT)
The people of Cuba will witness Saturday the first beatification
ceremony performed on the island, as Friar José Olallo Valdés is raised
to the altar.
Called a "hero of charity," the religious of the Hospitaller Order of
the Brothers of St. John of God is the second Cuban to be beatified.
ZENIT interviewed Father Félix Lizaso, of that same order, the
postulator for the beatification cause, to learn about the spiritual
legacy of Brother Valdés.
Part 1 of this interview appeared Thursday.
Q: What is Friar Valdés' secret in becoming "blessed"?
Father Lizaso: There is no actual secret about the fact that a
Servant of God would be named "blessed" or a saint. We might say that
the secret is his recognized sainthood; in other words, that the Church
approved his saintly life with the proof of a miracle.
In the case of the new blessed, Olallo Valdés, the Church has already
recognized his worthy and exemplary life, wholly devoted to welcoming
and assisting the poor, the sick and the abandoned.
Blessed Olallo was such a perfect follower of St. John of God, his
founder, that, like him, Olallo was known as a "hero of charity,"
"apostle of charity" and "father of the poor," among other names.
Q: For a beatification, a miracle needs to have occurred. What was it
in this case?
Father Lizaso: Upon Brother Olallo's death, the whole town poured
into the streets and began showing their veneration with extraordinary
manifestations of sorrow and prayer. They participated in his funeral
and burial, and they continued visiting his tomb afterward.
From a spirit of commemoration and grateful admiration, his devotees
began a moving veneration: They visited him, prayed to him, took him
flowers, requested his assistance and intercession, and experienced his
protection and patronage, while, in turn, they expressed the graces and
favors received.
The memory and admiration became veneration and intercession, a clear
sign of his renown for sainthood, and kept up for one hundred years,
subsequently claimed and declared by a number of witnesses at the court
of his process of sainthood.
When the process and examination of his sainthood began, this
veneration increased even more. During the postulation, letters were
frequently received reporting new graces and favors received through the
intercession of Father Olallo.
Among the various cases reported, one was chosen for its peculiarity:
that of the healing of a three-year-old girl, Danielita Cabrera Ramos,
from the town of Camaguey itself. She suffered from a disease catalogued
and diagnosed as "non-Hodgkin's, probably Burkitt's lymphoma, in stage
three to four, with vast abdominal diffusion, complicated by acute
kidney insufficiency and early relapse."
Her immediate and perfect cure occurred on the evening of Saturday,
Sep. 18, 1999. This can be attributed to continuous community prayer on
the part of an entire parish, in addition to other groups and neighbors
of the family. These people, brought together and encouraged by the
example of faith and confidence in the Servant of God, Olallo, shown by
Danielita's parents, admitted that the more serious the disease became,
the more they turned to prayer.
Q: The new blessed lived at a time which was in no way easy for the
religious. Can you describe some of the challenges of those days and how
Friar José Olallo and his order reacted?
Father Lizaso: Indeed, the days in which Blessed Olallo lived, in the
19th century, were really not easy. The island of Cuba, like most
countries in Latin America, was building its identity, seeking
independence, and in the process of social and political development.
These were days of poverty, lack of hygiene, serious epidemics, times of
slavery, when the strongest prevailed, etc.
Brother Olallo worked for 54 years in a hospital for the poor and
elderly, with a shortage of means, hunger, war, epidemics, slavery,
political and social rivalry, in a long-lasting and sustained commitment
toward this environment and its needs.
One author writes: "During the turbulent period of strife that came
about as human passions combated unleashed, he was perhaps the only
person who, removed from the turmoil, did not harbor grudges and who, on
finding himself on his own, did not lose stability nor falter in his
work, and who rejected esteem, however well-deserved, and forgave
discredit, always unfair."
In the midst of this disastrous social situation, he was also faced
with the difficult period the Church and religious were undergoing, with
land being disentailed and secularized, and its rather devastating
consequences for priests, convents and consecrated people.
Forced to put aside his external identity as a religious, Brother
Olallo continued at the hospital as a lay nurse, greatly admired and
recognized by the people for his lifestyle.
Of the last 25 years of his life, he spent the first 10 nursing his
only remaining religious companion, Brother Juan Manuel Torres, through
a serious illness. After the latter's death, he spent the last 13 years
of his life completely alone at the hospital, as the only surviving
Hospitaller. God and a few benefactors were his only company.
Q: The charism of the Hospitaller Order is hospitality. What did this
involve, in Friar José Olallo's lifetime, and what does it entail today?
What does "hospitality" mean?
Father Lizaso: According to the most common use of the term
"hospitality," it focuses on welcoming pilgrims. However, with St. John
of God, the term acquires a more specific, deeper and more direct
meaning.
It becomes a general charism of Christian and evangelical welcome and
attention to the sick, and of assistance to the poor and needy.
In the concrete figure of Olallo Valdés, the hospitaller charism took
the form of loving closeness, welcome, assistance, and healing of anyone
sick and needy. From the start, Olallo -- who arrived in Camaguey at the
age of 15 -- devoted himself entirely to the sick, and soon became an
expert in assisting cholera morbus patients. He always geared himself up
for all situations, whether simple or difficult.
Under normal circumstances, he showed equal concern and dedication
for the elderly, very often abandoned, for the poor and infirm, and for
street children, even those without schooling, making no kind of
distinction between people.
He viewed every sick person as someone in need. In addition to being
a nurse, on account of the hospitaller charism, he learned and practiced
the roles of surgeon, doctor, pharmacist, and even teacher and educator,
without taking the place of any professional, but standing in when these
were lacking.
Today, aside from health and social assistance toward the sick and
needy, the hospitality of the Order of St. John of God aims more at
meeting, replacing, and supplementing insufficiently covered social and
welfare needs; this, always bearing in mind places and circumstances, in
addition to Third World missions and countries.
Q: What trait do you most appreciate in the new blessed? Is there
something you learned from him? What do you consider truly impressive
about him?
Father Lizaso: When I became acquainted with him, my first reactions
were of admiration and regret.
Admiration at such an outstanding figure, honorable, exceptional, and
upright as a human being, as a hospitaller, and as a saint. Regret at
his having spent so many years without being known or recognized.
Other than Olallo's extraordinary behavior, what caught my attention
most, from the beginning, was his magnanimous nature and his
perseverance. Particularly, I admired his positive reaction toward the
rather disdainful welcome from his first superior in Camaguey who,
considering him an immature youngster, soon changed his caution to
"fondness and trust," admitting that Olallo had grown to be like "his
hands and feet."
As I learned of the testimonies about Olallo, I understood God's
designs upon him: The Gospel's criterion according to which the humble
are exalted, since he had remained in the historical shadow, hidden
within the heart of the Camagueyan people.
His testimony arose vigorously at this precise moment, so that his
figure surged like a new star in the firmament, the precious pearl of
the Gospel, which appeared in order to enrich and illuminate Camaguey,
the whole of Cuba, the Order of St. John of God, and finally, the
Church, like an evangelical model of Jesus, the compassionate and
merciful, and the Good Samaritan.
And in a more particular way, Olallo has become a special brother to
me, from a stranger to a close companion, one who has encouraged me and
even denounced me; he also appeared to me as someone in need, not on
behalf of himself nor for himself, but as a new brother who the Lord was
giving us, for our own good, to enlighten us all with his testimony.
He, together with the order, the Church, and God, were requesting my
contribution as a postulator-brother of St. John of God, to allow his
extraordinary charismatic testimony of heroic hospitality to become
known and recognized, and, from the Church, to light up the way for Cuba
and the order in the essence of the Gospel, love, in the form of service
to the suffering.
I feel the beatification of Brother Olallo Valdés is the moment when
the precious pearl is presented, disclosed, to all, by the Church.
[Translated by Clara Iriberry]
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