Venerable Miguel Angel Builes

Miguel Ángel Builes Gómez (9 September 1888 - 29 September 1971) was a Colombian Roman Catholic prelate who served as the Bishop of Santa Rosa de Osos from 1924 until his death. He was the founder of the Xaverian Missionaries of Yarumal (1927) and the Missionaries of Saint Thérèse (1929) as well as the Contemplative Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament (1939) and the Daughters of Our Lady of Mercy (1951). Builes was a prolific writer of pastoral letters and he condemned a vast range of issues in Colombian life that he deemed to be either too liberal or in breach of traditional doctrine; among those he condemned were women wearing trousers and various dance forms. He was a staunch defender of the faith which made him a controversial figure in his diocese with those praising and condemning him for his activism; but there were those who praised his orthodox views and his defense of doctrine in the face of a wave of secularism. Despite the controversies that surrounded him the beatification cause for the late bishop opened in 1990 and he became titled as a Servant of God as the first stage in the process. Pope Francis named him as Venerable on 19 May 2018 after confirming Builes led a life of heroic virtue. Miguel Ángel Builes Gómez was born on 9 September 1888 in Colombia to Agustín Builes Restrepo and Doña Ana María Gómez Peña. He completed his initial education in his hometown before deciding that he wanted to join the priesthood as per his call to the religious life. On 7 February 1907 he walked to San Pedro de los Milagros where the Eudists accepted him into their institute for his ecclesial studies and there as a seminarian underwent his philosophical studies and humanities. But he relocated to another institute on 8 March 1911 just for his theological education which was a prerequisite for the priesthood.