Enrique de Ossó y Cervelló

Enric d'Ossó i Cervelló (16 October 1840 - 27 January 1896) was a Spanish Catholic priest and the founder of the Society of Saint Teresa of Jesus. He served the role of an educator and an able catechist and published several works on catechesis to that effect while also expressing a keen interest in the value of women and in Teresa of Ávila to whom he dedicated his congregation.

Life Enric d'Ossó i Cervelló was born on 16 October 1840 as the last of three children born to wealthy farmers Jaime de Ossó and Micaela Cervelló. His brother was Jaime. His brother Jaime's son was Lluís de Ossó who helped found FC Barcelona and was one of its first players.

His father had been opposed to his being a priest (while his mother favored it) and in 1852 therefore sent him to become an apprentice in the textile business in Quinto; despite this setback he learnt the trade from his uncle who took care of him. But it was there that he became ill to the point where his First Communion was received as the Viaticum though he managed to recover and returned home while stopping off at a Marian shrine along the route to give thanks for his health's restoration.

Some time after the death of his mother in 1854 during a cholera outbreak he fled to Montserrat in order to realize his dream and attempted to seek refuge there though his brother Jamie took him home. It was when he returned that his father understood his son's desire and so relented to his son's wishes and agreed to his becoming a priest and so began his studies for the priesthood in 1854. He studied theology in Barcelona where he was made a sub-deacon and later studied at Tortosa before he was ordained to the priesthood on 21 September 1867; The formal introduction to the cause came on 15 July 1965 under Pope Paul VI in which the late priest was titled as a Servant of God.

The newly formed Congregation for the Causes of Saints validated these processes in Rome on 21 June 1969 while their consultants and officials met and approved the cause on 2 December 1975 before the C.C.S. on its own approved it on 27 January 1976. Paul VI approved that the priest lived a life of heroic virtue and titled him as Venerable on 15 May 1976.

The miracle that led to his beatification was that of Antonia Barrera Reig - of his order - who was healed of severe tuberculosis that damaged her stomach and intestines on 15 July 1923. The informative process spanned from 1926 until 1927 while the apostolic process for that same miracle spanned from 1966 until 1967, receiving formal validation from the C.C.S. on 21 June 1969. A medical board approved it on 21 September 1977 as did the C.C.S. and their consultants on 17 October 1978 and then the C.C.S. themselves on 30 January 1979. The newly elected Pope John Paul II approved it on 10 May 1979 and beatified him on 14 October 1979.

John Paul II also proclaimed him as the patron saint of catechists on 6 November 1998 in a formal decree that the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments issued.