Saint Juan Macías

Juan Macías was born on March 2, 1585, in Ribera del Fresno, in Extremadura, Spain. He lost his parents as a child and worked as a shepherd for an uncle, praying the Rosary while he cared for the flock. In 1616 he sailed to the Americas and, after passing through Cartagena, Pasto and Quito, reached Lima, where he worked on a cattle ranch outside the city.

In 1622 he received the habit as a lay brother in the Dominican convent of Santa María Magdalena in Lima. For more than twenty years he served as the convent porter, feeding, consoling and caring for the crowds of poor and sick people who came to the door, and even sent out a little donkey through the streets to bring back alms for them. He lived in Lima at the same time as Saint Martin de Porres and Saint Rose of Lima. He died on September 16, 1645, was beatified in 1837, and was canonized by Saint Paul VI on September 28, 1975.

Juan Macías is known as "the thief of purgatory" because he prayed so many rosaries for the souls in purgatory; tradition says that through his prayers he helped free more than a million souls.

The miracle accepted for his canonization happened in 1949 in Olivenza, Spain, near his hometown, where the rice in a home for poor children multiplied in the pot after the cook asked his help. In Peru and in Extremadura he is remembered as a model of charity toward the poor.