Blessed Salvador Valera Parra

Salvador Valera Parra was born at Huércal-Overa in the province of Almería on 27 February 1816. He entered the seminary and was ordained on 13 March 1840, and exercised his ministry mainly in his native town, first as assistant and then as parish priest. In 1853 he was made archpriest, and in 1859 his work and exemplary life brought him from the Spanish state first the honour of Knight of the Royal Order of Isabella the Catholic and then that of the Civil Order of Charles III. As parish priest he was known for many spiritual and social works, particularly during the cholera epidemics and the earthquakes that brought destruction and death in 1863; he took an active part in fighting the frequent fires and in collecting funds for the needy afterwards.

In 1885, together with Saint Teresa Jornet, foundress of the Little Sisters of the Abandoned Elderly, he founded a home for the old. His faith was fed by intense prayer, above all Eucharistic, and by a filial devotion to Our Lady of the Forsaken, venerated at Huércal-Overa as the Virgin of the River. Grave illness marked his last years, and he died on 15 March 1889.