Blessed Jacinto Vera

Blessed Jacinto Vera Durán (Atlantic Ocean, 3 July 1813 – Pan de Azúcar, Uruguay, 6 May 1881) was a Uruguayan Roman Catholic prelate who served as the first bishop of Montevideo. He was an active minister in Uruguay, although his efforts to renew the priesthood and other ecclesial initiatives brought him into conflict with the Uruguayan government; this was the cause of his exile from the country, establishing himself in Buenos Aires between October 1862 and August 1863, at which point a political change in Uruguay made his return possible. The popularity showcased by his reception continued throughout the rest of his life due to his intense and prolonged missionary work all over the diocese of Montevideo (at that time the only one for the whole country), of which he was made bishop upon its creation in 1878. A neighborhood of Montevideo was named after him in 1895. His fame of holiness led to the opening of his canonization process in 1935. On 5 May 2015, Pope Francis signed the decree of his heroic virtues, conferring him the title of Venerable upon him. On December 17, 2022, a miracle obtained through his intercession was approved and his beatification authorized; it was celebrated on 6 May 2023, in Montevideo. Jacinto Vera y Durán was born in mid-1813 on board a boat on the Atlantic Ocean to Gerardo Vera and Josefa Durán; the boat had been taking his parents from their place of origin in the Canary Islands to Uruguay. The infant was baptized during a boat stop at Nossa Senhora do Desterro in Florianópolis in Brazil. His siblings included his sisters María Teodora and Marianna and his brothers Dionisio Antonio de los Dolores and Francisco who died while in Brazil. From 1813 Vera lived on a leased farm until his parents purchased their own farm in 1819. He made his First Communion in the chapel of Our Lady of Carmen called Doña Ana and received his Confirmation around this stage as was the custom of the time.