Buenaventura García de Paredes

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Buenaventura García de Paredes was a Master of the Order of Preachers.

He was born and baptized on April 19, 1866 in Castañedo de Valdés, near Luarca (Asturias); he had a brother who was a priest, and as a young boy he took care of his father’s sheep as a shepherd boy. He began his primary studies in his hometown and in a Preceptory at the behest of the Dominican Fr. Esteban Sacrest, he entered the Apostolic School or the Minor Seminary of Corias (Asturias), where he continued his studies for two years, but his precarious health forced him to go home and rest; once recovered he proceeded to the Apostolic School of Ocaña (Toledo); he made his profession on August 31, 1884; after terminating his third year Theology, he was sent to the University of Salamanca to take up Civil Law which he later continued with Philosophy and Letters, in Valencia and Madrid; He was ordained to the priesthood in Avila on July 25, 1891; He was professor of political law and administrative law at the University of Santo Tomás in Manila, the editor of the Catholic daily Libertas, who defended the case of Msgr. Bernardino Nozaleda, O.P., the Archbishop of Manila.

Elected Prior of Santo Tomás de Ávila (1901), Rector of the College of Santa María de Nieva (Segovia), Prior de Ocaña (1910); during this time, he was elected Prior Provincial with residence in Manila. For 7 years he developed a fruitful activity of service to the Province which was then the most numerous and the most extensive Province within the Order. He ceded some mission fields in China and Vietnam to other provinces. The House of the Province in Valencia was given up to begin the restoration of the Province of Aragon. He founded the Magazine «Misiones Dominicanas» and acquired new properties to build the new campus of the University of Santo Tomás in Manila. He founded the Apostolic School of La Mejorada, near Olmedo (Valladolid), he extended the presence of the Province to the United States (in Tangipahoa, and the Center of Studies at Rosaryville, New Orleans, (Louisiana), which was inaugurated in 1911).

In 1917 he took charge of the construction and was made superior of the Convent of the Rosary of Madrid (at Calle Conde de Peñalver) and for nine years, he dedicated himself to the ministry and the direction of souls. In 1926, he was elected Master General of the Order, he prostrated on the floor to supplicate the Chapter Fathers to free him from this office, but seeing the insistence of the electors, the accepted the office at the end. Though his Mastership only lasted for two and a half years, he visited different provinces, acquired the locale for the Angelicum in Rome, wrote various circulars and faithfully complied with the obligations of his office. In 1929, due to some problems and the precarious state of his health, he presented his resignation.

He retired to Ocaña, and was in Madrid in the middle of July of 1936; he had to seek refuge in various places where he always manifested a great religious spirit and devotion to the Eucharist. He is convinced that only by confiding to the mercy of God can one conceive some hope during those chaotic situation.; He was detained on August 11 and was brought to the checa «García de Paredes»; from there he was escorted to Fuencarral (Madrid), where he was martyred on August 12 in a property called «Valdesenderín del Encinar»; They found a breviary and a rosary beside his cadaver.

On October 28, 2007 he was beatified by Benedict XVI.