Mamerto Esquiú

Mamerto Esquiú Medina (11 May 1826 – 10 January 1883) - born Mamerto de la Ascensión Esquiú - was an Argentine Roman Catholic professed member from the Order of Friars Minor and the Bishop of Córdoba from 1880 until his death.

Esquiú's cause for sainthood commenced under Pope Paul VI on 13 April 1978 and he became titled as a Servant of God while the confirmation of his heroic virtue allowed for Pope Benedict XVI to name him as Venerable on 16 December 2006. He was beatified on 4 September 2021.

Life Mamerto de la Ascensión Esquiú was born on 11 May 1826 in Piedra Blanca to Santiago Esquiú and María de las Nieves Medina. His mother chose the name "Mamerto de la Ascensión" in homenage to Saint Mamerto due to his date of birth being the commemoration date for Saint Mamertus while "Ascensión" comprised part of the name because the because Ascension feast fell on his birth.

Esquiú's faith came from his mother and he decided to pursue a path to the priesthood; his mother was a devotee of Francis of Assisi and from age five he himself began to cultivate a devotion and admiration for the Italian saint. He entered the Order of Friars Minor and on 31 May 1836 began his education and his period of novitiate at the Catamarca Franciscan convent in Catamarca. The urn in which the heart was kept was left behind and the head of the convent Jorge Martinez said: "The theft was carried out because of the heart - nothing else was stolen" and described the incident as "sad". Witnesses reported a bearded man running from the convent at the time of the theft. Gemain Jasani (b. 1988) was arrested a month later and said he threw it in a trash can several blocks from the convent; Jorge Martinez blamed religious fanaticism for the theft.

The heart has never been recovered.

Beatification The beatification process commenced after Bishop Fermín Emilio Lafitte inaugurated an informative process to assess the late friar's life on 18 July 1930 and later concluded the process in a solemn Mass held on 20 December 1945; theologians approved all of his spiritual writings to be in full line with official doctrine on 23 November 1963 while the Congregation for the Causes of Saints would later validate the cause on 1 March 2002.

The formal introduction to the cause came under Pope Pius XII on 4 March 1947 and he became titled as a Servant of God.

The postulation submitted the Positio dossier to the C.C.S. in 2004 who assigned a board of historians to discuss the cause on 16 November 2004. Theologians approved the cause on 3 February 2006 as did the C.C.S. on 17 October 2006 after a thorough review of the dossier's contents. Esquiú was named as Venerable on 16 December 2006 after Pope Benedict XVI confirmed that the late Franciscan had lived a model life of heroic virtue. Pope Francis approved his beatification in June 2020 and said that he was someone who showed "that faith has a transforming dynamic far superior to that of all political programs, which is the force of love". The beatification was scheduled first for 13 March 2021 but postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic; the celebration was rescheduled and celebrated on 4 September 2021 in Catamarca.

The current postulator for this cause is Giovangiuseppe Califano while the current vice-postulator is Marcelo Mendez.