Venerable Jesús María Echavarría y Aguirre

Jesús María Echavarría Aguirre (6 July 1858 – 5 April 1954) was a Mexican Roman Catholic prelate who served as the Bishop of Saltillo from 1904 until his death. He was also the founder of the Guadalupan Catechists Sisters. He was an ardent devotee to the Mother of God and attentive to the needs of local parishes; his pastoral mission consisted of improving parish conditions and focusing on alleviating the plight of the poor in his diocese. The beatification cause opened under Pope John Paul II on 7 December 1990 and he was titled as a Servant of God while the confirmation of his heroic virtue in 2014 allowed for Pope Francis to name him as Venerable. Jesús María Echavarría Aguirre was born in Mexico on 6 July 1858 as the first of twelve children to Don Ignacio Echavarría Yañez (9 May 1831 - 7 August 1904) and Doña María del Refugio Aguirre Rochín (26 May 1841 - 3 April 1919); the two married in 1857. His baptism was celebrated on 18 July in the local parish church in which he received the names of "José María Francisco Romulo de Jesús". His siblings were: His father died in August 1904 and his brother Ranulfo followed not long after. On 3 December 1902 he was made the vicar-general for the Sinaloa diocese and made rector of seminarians at Culiacan on 23 November 1895. Echavarría was later appointed as the vicar of the Culiacan cathedral; in 1890 he set in motion the construction of the Shrine of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Culiacan. In 1904 he moved to Guadalajara to undergo the spiritual exercises that the Jesuits led. Pope Pius X - on 16 December 1904 - appointed him as the Bishop of Saltillo; he received his episcopal consecration (in the Saltillo cathedral) and was installed in his new diocese both in 1905.