Venerable Father Salvador Valera Parra was among a group of nearly 200 causes of beatification and canonization that Pope Leo approved in mid June.
Many on that long list were martyrs of the Spanish Civil War (124 of them) or martyrs of the Nazis (a group of 50 French people).
But Venerable Valera Parra is not on the list of martyrs. He was a parish priest who served primarily in his hometown of Huércal-Overa, Spain, where he also died on March 15, 1889, at the age of 73.
He was much loved by his local flock, especially because during cholera epidemics and an earthquake that leveled the region in 1863, he worked tirelessly, urging the faithful to find consolation in the Eucharist and in Our Lady. Any place there was a need, one was likely to find Fr. Valera Parra.
In 1885, together with St. Teresa Jornet, founder of the Little Sisters of the Forsaken Elderly, he established a residence and home for the elderly.
A biography provided by his home Diocese of Almería, Spain, noted:
The then-Archbishop of Valencia would say of him: “I am not speaking of a man or a priest, I am speaking of an angel.” There are countless testimonies of the fame of his holiness [...] leading him to be defined as 'the Spanish Curé d'Ars,' as he lived his priestly ministry mainly in his native village of Huércal Overa.
There are no writings or great deeds known about him, he was not the founder of any religious congregation, only the profound experience of his priestly being shines through him, based on the Eucharist and prayer, on the dedication of his life to his parishioners, on his continuous charity towards them, leading them to Christ, the Lord of our lives.
A United States connection
And now Fr. Varela has found a way to help again: this time by interceding for a miracle in Rhode Island.
The miracle that the Vatican attributes to his intercession, and that paves the way for his Beatification, took place in 2007 in a hospital in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. It concerns a premature newborn whose prognosis was critical, but who recovered inexplicably after the attending physician invoked the intercession of the Spanish priest.
The baby, named Tyquan, was born by emergency C-section after leakage of amniotic fluid at the Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island in Pawtucket in January 2007. He was premature and was suffering from oxygen deprivation.
Little Tyquan was not breathing well and after an hour, doctors could not detect a heartbeat. But the attending physician was from Spain, and according to the Vatican, "he called on Salvador Valera Parra, his fellow countryman, to whom he had sincere devotion, and with a spontaneous prayer, asked for his intercession for the baby's salvation."
Shortly thereafter, without any external intervention, the newborn's heartbeat returned and he began to revive. The following day, he was transferred to the neonatal intensive care unit [...] The doctors were certain that he would suffer serious developmental damage [but on] March 1, 2007, he was discharged from the neonatal intensive care unit. [...] Little Tyquan continued to grow as a normal child, leading a regular life and playing sports.
Father Timothy Reilly, chancellor of the Diocese of Providence, told NBC News that the miracle is a "reminder of the power of prayer and the intercession of holy men and women. God is indeed close to us."
The Diocese of Almería reports that Venerable Varela's beatification could take place in 2026.
Read here the announcement from the Providence Diocese.
