Venerable Isidoro Zorzano

Isidoro Zorzano Ledesma (13 September 1902 – 15 July 1943) was a Spanish Catholic layman who was a member of Opus Dei. Zorzano was a naturalized Argentine due to being born in Buenos Aires, though upon his relocating to Spain he met and befriended Fr Josemaría Escrivá and soon joined the latter's embryonic foundation of Opus Dei, which would later become the first personal prelature of the Catholic Church. Ledesma worked as an engineer and worked in several places though his compassion and love for the poor led people around him to name him as a saint due to his efforts in alleviating their suffering through various means; he aided priests and Opus Dei alike during the Spanish Civil War and he himself kept to himself for most of that period to avoid being targeted and killed. He died of cancer in 1943. His cause for sainthood opened under Pope Pius XII on 11 October 1948 and he became titled as a Servant of God while the confirmation of his heroic virtue allowed Pope Francis to title him as Venerable on 21 December 2016. Isidoro Zorano Ledesma was born on 13 September 1902 in Buenos Aires as the third of five to immigrants who left Spain for economic reasons; a brother that followed after his birth was Francisco and he had two sisters. In 1905 his parents had secured their economic stature and so decided to return to Spain with the intention of returning to Argentina at some stage. He settled in Logroño where he did his education right through to high school. His father died in 1912 which was unexpected and so his mother decided to remain there. In January 1916 he met Josemaría Escrivá, who was a new classmate that had just arrived from Barbastro and the two became close friends. In 1918 he graduated from high school and began to prepare for an entrance examination into the Special School for Industrial Engineers in Madrid where he relocated in October 1919.