Saint Who?
Saints Who Were Scientists
Saint Faustino Míguez
Priest and founder († 1925) Feast: March 8
Manuel Míguez González was born in Spain in 1831. In his late teens he discerned a vocation to the priesthood and entered the Piarists, receiving the name Faustino of the Incarnation. He was ordained in 1856. A charitable priest, who served the poor and spent hours on end in the confessional, Father Faustino was a skilled scientist.
He had a lifelong interest in the study of plants. After he was ordained, he was sent to Cuba, where he was inspired by observing the inhabitants’ use of plants for healing. When he returned to Spain, his scientific abilities went into high gear. He taught chemistry, physics, and natural science. He helped his local government do a health analysis of the city’s water supply, testing over forty wells. The results of his study became a well-respected book.
He also began to make medicines from plants himself, and was soon much sought after. The Dean of Medicine at the University of Seville even personally petitioned him to seek a cure for one of the professors there, which Father Faustino succeeded in doing. He later founded the Daughters of the Divine Shepherdess, a religious community dedicated to the service of poor and illiterate women. Father Faustino died at ninety-three. He was canonized in 2017.
Compassionate Father, may our talents and interests
be always at the service of our vocations.
