Blessed Mamerto Esquiú

Mamerto Esquiú Medina (11 May 1826 – 10 January 1883) - born Mamerto de la Ascensión Esquiú - was an Argentine Roman Catholic professed member from the Order of Friars Minor and the Bishop of Córdoba from 1880 until his death. Esquiú's cause for sainthood commenced under Pope Paul VI on 13 April 1978 and he became titled as a Servant of God while the confirmation of his heroic virtue allowed for Pope Benedict XVI to name him as Venerable on 16 December 2006. He was beatified on 4 September 2021. Mamerto de la Ascensión Esquiú was born on 11 May 1826 in Piedra Blanca to Santiago Esquiú and María de las Nieves Medina. His mother chose the name "Mamerto de la Ascensión" in homenage to Saint Mamerto due to his date of birth being the commemoration date for Saint Mamertus while "Ascensión" comprised part of the name because the because Ascension feast fell on his birth. Esquiú's faith came from his mother and he decided to pursue a path to the priesthood; his mother was a devotee of Francis of Assisi and from age five he himself began to cultivate a devotion and admiration for the Italian saint. He entered the Order of Friars Minor and on 31 May 1836 began his education and his period of novitiate at the Catamarca Franciscan convent in Catamarca. On 14 July 1842 he made his solemn profession into the order and was ordained to the priesthood on 18 October 1848; he celebrated his first Mass on 15 May 1849. He was committed to education being a teacher and professor at the convent for sometime and from 1850 to 1860 taught philosophical studies at a school that Governor Manuel Navarro (1791-1852) had founded. After the ruthless and devastating Argentine civil war - and during the celebration of the Oath of the Constitution of 9 July 1853 - he preached his famous Sermon of the Constitution where he prayed for the union of all Argentine people.