Saint Who?
Saints Who Cared for the Sick
Saint José Gabriele del Rosario Brochero
Priest († 1914)Feast: January 26
From the photographs taken of Father Brochero, one might think he was an Argentinian cowboy, not a priest.
José was born into a large, devout family in Argentina, and two of his sisters became religious sisters. He was ordained a priest at the age of twenty-six, and his first assignment was to teach philosophy at a seminary. But during a cholera outbreak, he set aside his duties to care for the sick. That may have been the reason his bishop decided to take José away from his desk assignment and give him a more pastoral position.
The bishop assigned José to serve a rural community of ten thousand Catholics spread out over a region covering 1,675 square miles. As José traveled through the mountains and hills to bring the sacraments to his parishioners, he rode a mule and wore the protective poncho and sombrero of a typical cowboy. To meet the spiritual, educational, and material needs of his people, he established a spiritual center and a school, and he petitioned the government to build much-needed post offices, telegraph stations, and railways. His care for his people was also personal; as a result of ministering to a leper, he contracted the disease himself. He was eventually forced to retire, and he became blind and deaf before he died at the age of seventy-three.
Jesus the Good Shepherd, show us how to reach
those who are far away from you.
