André Hibernon

Andrés Hibernón Real (1534 – 18 April 1602) was a Spanish, Roman Catholic, professed religious from the Order of Friars Minor. Hibernón was born to nobles who fell poor, and he was robbed when he sought to provide funds for his parents. This occurrence prompted him to revise his approach to material and spiritual goods and so he became a lay brother to cultivate his spiritual nature.

His beatification received formal approval from Pope Pius VI in mid-1791.

Life Although Andrés Hibernón Real was born in 1534 at his uncle's house in Murcia, he spent his childhood in Alcantarilla where his parents lived. He was baptized in the Murcia Cathedral where his uncle was a chaplain.

He died at the age of sixty-eight in the early hours of 18 April 1602 in the friary of San Roque de Gandía in Valencia, having foretold that exact date of his death in 1598.

Veneration When word of his death spread, the friary was besieged by throngs seeking a small piece of his clothing or of something he had touched, as a relic. He was initially buried in the conventual Church of San Roque de Gandía, to which pilgrims came seeking his intercession, or in thanksgiving for favors received. His incorrupt remains are now housed in the Murcia Cathedral – though some are in Alcantarilla – after being relocated from Gandia in 1936 due to the Spanish Civil War.

The beatification for the late friar was proposed under Pope Urban VIII in 1624, but as the province was already involved in the cause of Paschal Baylon, no formal process was initiated and thus the cause did not come to fruition during that pontificate. The beatification did later receive formal approval from Pope Pius VI who confirmed the local 'cultus' – or popular devotion – in a decree issued on 22 May 1791.