The doctor and devout José Gregorio Hernández (1864-1919), academic, scientist and Secular Franciscan, part of the Latin American religious popular cult and symbol par excellence of the Christian faith in Venezuela, will be finally beatified this Friday in a ceremony that will take place in the Iglesia del Colegio La Salle, in Caracas, and which will be broadcast on the national radio and television network.
The event, which can be seen via
streaming
by the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference and the Archdiocese of Caracas, it will take place during the second wave of the pandemic "taking all biosafety measures," said the Minister of Interior and Justice of the Bolivarian regime, Carmen Meléndez. "The beatification of José Gregorio comes at a particularly opportune moment," said Monsignor Baltasar Porras, president of the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference, alluding to the worsening of the pandemic in Venezuela and the delay in the arrival of vaccines by the Maduro government. The Vatican Secretary of State, Pietro Parolín, who had confirmed his presence at the ceremony, apologized at the last minute for the increase in infections. Pope Francis had authorized the beatification of the Venezuelan doctor on June 13 of last year.
The long-awaited beatification of José Gregorio Hernández has been received with enormous joy by the Venezuelan Catholic community, a vast majority in the country.
It is one of the rare occasions in which consensus prevails over the toxic effects of political polarization as a chronic circumstance of national life.
The religious authorities, the leadership of Chavismo and opposition activism have taken the initiative as their own and have invited the population to join the act.
A group of people in front of Iglesia Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria, the place that keeps the remains of José Gregorio Hernández in Caracas, on June 19, 2020.MANAURE QUINTERO / Reuters
Born in Isnotu, Trujillo state, in the Venezuelan Andes, Hernández did his secondary studies in Caracas and in 1888 he graduated as a doctor at the Central University of Venezuela, the oldest and most important in the country. The following year he left for France to specialize in the laboratories of Charles Robert Richet, and also studied in Berlin. In 1891, he returned to Caracas to found the chairs of Histology, Pathology, Experimental Physiology, and Bacteriology -the latter is the first of its kind in all of Latin America- at the UCV and at the Vargas Hospital in Caracas.
Author of numerous scientific and medical research works, co-founder of the National Academy of Medicine and a symbol in the exercise of science teaching in the country, José Gregorio Hernández was the one who introduced the use of the microscope and other instruments of daily practice in patient care.
Hernández also published some chronicles and literary essays in
El Cojo Ilustrado,
the most important cultural magazine of the moment in Venezuela.
More information
'The doctor's miracles', by Ibsen Martínez
While accumulating academic merits and earning everyone's respect for his nobility and professional credentials, José Gregorio Hernández devotedly delved into his Catholic faith and religious studies.
In 1908 he was admitted to the Carthusian Monastery of Farneta, in Italy, although he had to leave it months later due to health complications.
In 1909 he entered the Santa Rosa de Lima Seminary in Caracas.
He was also part of the Pontifical Latin American Pio College in Rome in 1913. In the Church of Our Lady of Mercy of the Capuchin Friars, Hernández took vows as a Secular Franciscan.
In Caracas, in particular, his selfless work caring for the sick during the 1918 pandemic, known as "the Spanish flu," which claimed millions of victims in the country, is well remembered.
José Gregorio Hernández was accidentally hit by one of the few existing automobiles in Caracas in 1919. His unfortunate and unexpected death produced enormous consternation.
His funeral was a remembered display of mourning in the streets.
Very quickly his memory began to be the object of popular worship, in the symbol of the hope of the patient in the face of death, and numerous miracles were attributed to him.
The stamp of José Gregorio Hernández presides over many public health centers and has been represented in numerous graphic works and artistic interventions.
His life has been recreated several times on television series.
His figure has also been used in Santeria rituals, common in depressed popular areas of the country, a fact that is severely sanctioned by the priests.
The Venezuelan Catholic Church began the process for the beatification of José Gregorio Hernández in 1949. In 1972 he was declared by the Vatican Servant of God.
In 1986, John Paul II declared him Venerable.
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