José Olallo

Bl. José Olalla y Valdés, O.H.
Religious
Born	February 12, 1820 Havana, Cuba, Spanish Empire
Died	March 7, 1889 Camagüey, Cuba, Spanish Empire
Venerated in	Roman Catholicism (Cuba & the Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God)
Beatified	November 29, 2008, Camagüey, Cuba by Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, C.F.M., for Pope Benedict XVI

José Olallo y Valdés, O.H., (12 February 1820 - 7 March 1889) was a Cuban Hospitaller Brother, who spent his life caring for the poor of the City of Camagüey. He was beatified by the Catholic Church in 2008.^[1]

Life

Olallo was found abandoned at 30 days of age at the Orphanage of St. Joseph in Havana, where he was then raised for the next seven years. He was then transferred to the Benefencia Orphanage in the same city.<ref name = VNS /^[2]

In 1834 Olallo applied for admission to the Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God, who operated the Hospital of Sts. Philip and James in the city and was received into of the Order. Upon completing the year of novitiate in April 1835 he was assigned to serve at the Order's Hospital of St. John of God in the city of Puerto Príncipe, now Camagüey. He would spend the rest of his life there, nursing the sick and needy of the city, advancing by age 25 to Head Nurse of the hospital. In 1856 he was named prior of the community.^[3]

Olallo faced major challenges in his ministry of healthcare during Cuba's Ten Years' War (1868-1878), giving aid to people on both sides and having his hospital commandeered by the Spanish military forces for use as a military hospital. Nevertheless, he continued to admit the neediest from among the civilian population. He was able to intercede with the military to prevent a massacre in the city, under the draconian treatment Spain decreed during that conflict. Additionally, he was faced with the suppression of all religious orders by the Liberal government of Spain in 1869 and the expulsion of any religious from peninsular Spain. With the death of the only other remaining member of the Hospitaller community in 1876, he lived alone for the rest of his life.^[3]

Veneration

Olallo was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI. The ceremony of beatification was held in Camagüey, the first ever held in Cuba. It was presided over by Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, C.F.M., the Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints. The President of Cuba, Raul Castro, attended the ceremony.^[4]

References